Kingdom Hearts: Video Game Edition
by Nicole Peach
Summary: Sora was an ordinary boy who dreamed of exploring the world outside of his island with his friends, Riku and Kairi, but when his home is destroyed, Sora must search for them among the worlds of video games, with some new friends along the way. Video game novelization of the first Kingdom Hearts game. Formerly known as Gaming Hearts
1. Prologue

"_I've been having these weird thoughts lately…"_

"_Like is any of this for real or not?"_

A boy was on a beach. His eyes skimmed the area in the bright sunlight. He had to find his friends.

Another boy stood in the ocean. The boy's hand reached out to get him, but he couldn't reach before the tidal wave came. They were plunged underneath the water. He reached for the boy, but the water pushed him away back onto the shore.

A girl stood above him. She laughed at him and he smiled as she watched him stand up. A look of concern formed on her face and he looked up. He watched himself fall into the water and suddenly he fell back, plunging into the water much like his replica. The girl watched him fall, but neither could reach the other. He continued the plunge into the water, into the Darkness.

Suddenly, there was light. Birds flew around him, surrounded him as they flew off the ground and into the Darkness. Below him was a stained glass platform. The glass was a deep pink with girl on it. The girl, surrounded by a heart, was a blonde in a pink dress. A small golden crown rested on her forehead, and a blue gem sat on her chest. White gloves covered her hands and lower arms.

"_So much to do, so little time…Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut."_ A voice seemed to come from nowhere. He looked around anxiously in search of a source, but as expected, he was unable to place its location.

"_Now, step forward,"_ the voice said. _"Can you do it?"_

He slowly walked towards the center of the stained glass. His eyes were wary of the new surroundings. He had no idea where he was. All he wanted was his friends. They had to be somewhere. In time with the voices phrase, three platforms arose from the glass with weapons surrounding them. _"Power sleeps within you…If you give it form…It will give you strength."_

"_Choose well."_

He examined the three weapons. The first was a silver sword. The hilt connected to it was gold with a red hand guard. On a green gem between the hand guard and the gold connecting to the blade was a red mushroom with two eyes. The second weapon was a black shield with red borders. The same mushroom rested within the center of the shield. The final weapon was a staff with a green and gold handle. On the top was another of the mushrooms. He walked over to the sword.

"_The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?"_ He shook his head to the question. An ultimate power for destruction wasn't his goal at all. The sword returned to the pedestal, and he looked towards the other two. He decided to look at the shield next.

"_The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is the power you seek?"_ He nodded. His friends meant a lot to him, and a power to protect them sounded pretty good. The shield disappeared.

"_Your path is set. Now what will you give up in exchange?"_ He looked over the final two weapons and walked over to the staff.

"_The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. You give up this power." _He nodded again.

"_You've chosen the power of the guardian. You've given up the power of the mystic. Is this the form you choose?"_ He nodded a final time. The three pedestals fell into darkness just before the stained glass shattered. He found himself on another platform. This one had another girl. The girl wore a golden dress in a similar style to the earlier blonde and dark brown hair. She too had on white gloves over her arms. The glass itself was golden, and a flower surrounded her.

"_You gained the power to fight,"_ the voice said. The shield reappeared in his hands, unfortunately, some enemies also appeared. The enemies were a pitch black with glowing yellow eyes. They had two black antennae emerging from their heads. He hit one with his shield, and it vanished in a puff of black smoke. _"All right! You've got it. Use this power to protect yourself and others. There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."_ He swung the shield at another foe, and then another, bashing at them to beat each of the foes slowly and methodically beat each of the foes.

"_Behind you!"_ It was shouted in warning. He turned around and hit the enemy behind him. His shield destroyed it quickly. Afterwards, he turned back to the remaining foes until the enemies were all gone from the platform. A pool of darkness formed beneath his feet, sucking him down off the platform.

Now the platform was red. Instead of a girl, there were three silhouettes surrounded by hearts. The new platform had a door on it, but that was all. He walked towards the door and pulled on the handles. "It won't open…" he said. The voice didn't answer him. Assuming it would talk again when ready, he looked around the platform only to see a chest appear. He walked over and opened the chest to find a glowing green liquid. He picked it up and pocketed it. As there was nothing else of interest, he opened the door only for a bright light to flash.

When the light faded, he was back on his island and surrounded by three friends of his, two boys and one girl. _"Hold on the door won't open just yet. First, tell me about yourself."_

Without much of a choice, he walked over to the first of his friends, a dark skinned male with dark orange hair. "Hey Wakka," he said.

"What do you want outta life?" Wakka asked.

"Huh?"

"What do you want outta life," Wakka repeated. The boy acted as though he'd never spoke.

"To broaden my horizons…I guess…" he said.

"To broaden your horizons, huh?" Wakka asked.

"What's wrong with that?" he asked. He received no further response. He walked over to the lone female of the group, a girl with light brown hair and green eyes.

"What's most important to you?" the girl asked.

"Oh no! Not you too!" he said in shock.

"What's most important to you?" she repeated.

After a moment, he decided on his answer, "Friendship."

"Is friendship really such a big deal?" Assuming she wouldn't answer further, much like Wakka, he walked to the final boy, a blonde with blue eyes.

"What are you afraid of?" the boy asked.

"Being indecisive," he answered.

"Being indecisive? Is that really so scary?" the boy asked.

"_You want to broaden your horizons. You value your friendship. You're afraid of being indecisive,"_ the voice quickly recapped his earlier decisions. _"Your adventure begins in the dead of night. Your road won't be easy, but a rising sun awaits your journey's end."_

"Sounds good," he said. He had to wonder if the journey going to be that hard in the future. He could still only wonder what the voice was talking about.

"_The day you will open the door is both far off and very near…"_

The islands around him vanished. He was now on a new platform, one with a picture of a girl in a light blue dress this time. The girl had pale blonde hair going over one eye and a rod with a star in her hand. A silver crown rested on top of her head and a little star creature was nearby her, appearing to bounce around with glee. More of the enemies appeared. He summoned his shield once more and began bashing them in as quickly as possible. One after the other, the creatures fell to his shield until none remained. A set of stained glass stairs appeared. He walked up them, one by one, each step vanishing as he moved forward.

The stairs lead to another stained glass platform. This one was a light purple with the image of two girls. The first had long pink hair and brown eyes. The girl wore a brown fuzzy vest that cut off around her green tank top and shorts. The second had short brown hair and glasses. She wore a green top and black skirt. In both of their hands was a black cat plushie. _"The closer you get to the light the greater your shadow becomes."_

He turned around at what the voice said. His shadow was huge, which he assumed to mean he was close to the end of the journey. The shadow rose seconds later. It was alive, thoroughly startling him. It wasn't long before it grew even larger, now a large black creature of some form. The creature had two giant fists and feet and a mass of tangle on its head that could be deemed hair. In the chest cavity of the creature was a large heart shaped hole. "Wh-what?" He tried to run away from the large shadow to the stair case, but it was gone, just a large black chasm remained.

"_But don't be afraid. And don't forget…"_ He had no choice. He turned to face the large monster. His shield hit the creature's hand. It hardly seemed to notice the damage. The monster punched the ground where he stood and summoned a pool of darkness where two of the earlier enemies emerged from the ground. He bashed the creature's hand on the ground as well as the two little enemies. Its hand emerged from the ground, and it began to fire dark sphere like projectiles at the boy. He blocked the projectiles with his shield, but some hit him and some bounced off. The ones that bounced off hit the monster in the head and seemed to deal more damage to it. He made note of its weak point before beginning to hit the creature once more on its hands as it punched the ground, this time creating a shock wave that he had to jump over to take out. As he went to hit it with his shield once more, the weapon vanished. He tried to call it back to his hands, but with no luck. The creature punched the floor once more, generating the pool of darkness.

This time, he was unable to escape. The tendrils of darkness managed to start dragging his body down. He panicked, wildly flailing to escape. _"But don't be afraid."_ He couldn't help his panic. The voice wasn't the one drowning in darkness.

"_You hold the mightiest weapon of all."_ He didn't understand. Was the voice talking about something else or the shield? If his "mightiest weapon" vanished and appeared whenever it chose, it would be a rough battle, just as the voice predicted. His head was covered by the darkness now, drowning out all his vision quickly.

"_So don't forget: You are the one who will open the door." _


	2. Chapter 1: Lazy Days

Deep among the ocean was a small group islands. The first and largest of these islands was a town where many worked and ran. The second island was a playground for many of the kids ran around on the sandy beach. The third island was small, and only held a single palm tree with a yellow star shaped fruit. It is on this second island, a boy slept, his sleep disturbed by strange dreams.

The boy woke up not moments later. He yawned as he briefly opened his blue eyes. He laid down seconds later, his brown, spiky, hair hitting the floor with a plan to fall back asleep and closed his eyes, relaxing on the beach. When he opened his eyes, a girl stood above him. The girl had dark red hair and purple eyes. The boy pushed himself off the ground in shock, narrowly avoiding her head. "Woah!" The girl laughed. "Give me a break Kairi!"

"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew I'd find you snoozing down here," she said. A smile lit up her face as she watched him gather his thoughts for a moment.

"No! This huge black thing swallowed me up!" he said, his voice was panicked as he remembered the suffocating feeling of being drowned in the Darkness after he lost to the strange shadowy monster. "I couldn't breathe, I couldn't-Ow!" He stopped as Kairi flicked him lightly in the head to get his attention.

"Are you still dreaming?"

"It wasn't a dream! Or was it?" Sora sighed. The more he thought about it, the less real it seemed. "I don't know…what was that place? So bizarre."

She laughed, instantly dismissing his strange dream as just that. "Yeah sure."

"Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like?" Sora asked. "You know, where you grew up."

"I've told you before, I don't remember." Kairi was a bit unusual in terms of the residents of the islands, as she wasn't born there nor did she remember where she was from. When she was younger, a lot of the kids were interested in the mystery, but as they got older, she became more of an accepted part of the island and with the exception of a few close friends, not very many people remained interested in this mystery town she once lived in.

"Nothing at all?" He hoped asking her again might prompt a memory. Whether she would ever admit to it or not, Sora could tell Kairi was slightly bothered by the fact that she knew nothing of who she was before the islands, especially about her birth family.

"Nothing," she said.

"You ever want to go back?" Sora asked.

Kairi seemed to pause for a moment before answering. "Well, I'm happy here."

"Really…" He was disappointed. Helping Kairi find her home was one of the excuses they told their parents for their great adventure they were planning. If Kairi had no interest, he doubted he'd be able to get away with it forever.

"But you know…I wouldn't mind going to see it," she said as though she sensed his disappointment. He perked up.

"I'd like to see it too," Sora said. "Along with any other worlds out there! I'd like to see 'em all!"

"So what are we waiting for?" she asked. It was definitely a journey they were both excited for.

"Aren't you guys forgetting about me?" A boy walked up to the two, this one with silver hair. His light blue eyes were amused even though his voice feigned hurt. He walked by and tossed the log at Sora, knocking him back to the ground. "And you're just as lazy as he is." He pointed to Kairi.

She giggled. "So you noticed. Okay, we'll finish it together. I'll race you!"

"Huh?" Sora looked at her in confusion.

"What, are you kidding?" the other boy asked.

"Ready! Go!" she shouted and the boys both leapt up at her call. Their longer legs allowed them to cover the distance faster, but it still wasn't all that long until they arrived at the other side of the island where a bunch of logs sat. The boy went over to the logs while Sora stood in front of Kairi.

"So, can you gather the rest of the supplies?" Kairi asked. She noticed Sora's lack of response and snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Huh, what?" he looked at Kairi in surprise. She sighed.

"Sora, were you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, I heard you," he said.

"Okay, here's what you need to find: two logs, one cloth, and one rope," she listed each other materials off one by one. "Bring everything back here. If you need any help, just ask. I'm counting on you."

"Okay, see you Kairi." Sora ran off from the shack and started walking towards the cove area of the island.

"Hey Sora!" a girl with light brown hair in a yellow dress walked up to him.

"Hey Selphie, what's going on?" he asked.

"Not a lot. Hey, wanna spar?" Selphie asked.

"Can't, I've gotta find supplies for the raft, Kairi's orders." He smiled.

"Aw, your no fun," Selphie pouted, "but okay. If you need any rope, I think Tidus has some up in the tree house."

"See you Selph!" He continued on his way up a ladder and into a wooden platform. A blond boy was there practicing with a wooden sword.

"Hey Sora! Bet you can't beat me this time!" the boy said as he noticed Sora's entry.

"Kairi sent me looking for supplies, and I was told some rope would be here," Sora said.

"I do have some! Tell you what, beat me and I'll give it to you!" the boy, presumably Tidus, said.

"You're on!" Sora jumped down the ladder and onto the ground, followed by the boy and they walked onto the sand of the beach. Off to the side, Selphie, another boy, and the silver haired boy stood watching the battle.

Tidus started off by slashing at Sora with a wooden sword. Sora lifted up his own in defense before knocking Tidus back and using a quick strike of his own to knock him back further. Tidus charged at him again, but rather than hitting him he ran past him to behind Sora, where he hit him with the sword. Sora turned around with his own sword and once more gave a quick slash and hit Tidus again. He threw the sword a final time, knocking Tidus off his feet and onto the ground.

_The sword is definitely better than the shield,_ Sora thought as he offered his hand to Tidus. Tidus grabbed his hand and smiled.

"Thought I'd get you this time, here's your rope." Tidus climbed up back into the tree house after handing Sora the rope.

He looked around the island for a couple more minutes before walking over to the other side where a couple of logs were strangely lying around. He walked over to the shore and picked up a piece of cloth with hope it was big enough for what Kairi wanted.

"Hey Sora!" the silver haired boy called him from the smallest island, leaning back against a palm tree.

"Riku!" Sora waved and ran over quickly. "What are you doing?"

"I finished most of the raft, so I figured I'd take a break," he said. "Since you appear to be done, I figured you could use the challenge."

"I'll win this time!" Sora and Riku had been competing against each other for as long as they'd known each other, and they were always rivals. Sora was currently three down to Riku's wins.

"We'll see." Riku picked up a wooden sword from the ground before getting off the Paopu tree. He lifted up his sword so it was raised above his head and charged. Unlike with Tidus, Sora barely had enough time to life his sword up to guard against the attack. He found himself pushed back several inches before Riku finally relented in the strike, giving Sora time to retaliate. Riku blocked his strike with a move that had very little effort and pushed back on Sora. Sora ran up again, this time managing to hit Riku.

Riku wasn't even knocked off balance however, as he lunged at Sora, unconcerned with the strike that had just hit him. Sora lifted up his sword again, however was pushed back even further near the edge of the island. Sora rolled out of the way of another strike that was aimed at him, causing Riku to nearly fall in the water.

"Nice trick," Riku said with a smile. Sora hadn't meant to trick him, but smiled back considering it meant he had a chance. He charged against Riku one last time, this strike actually putting him in the ocean. "Okay! I surrender!" Although his tone remained cheerful, his eyes darkened.

"Yeah! I win!" Sora cheered.

"Good job Sora!" Somewhere in the middle of the fight, Kairi had walked over to them to watch. "Did you finish gathering supplies like I asked?"

"Yup!" Sora pulled out each of the items.

"Thanks Sora! We'll finish up the raft tomorrow," she said and looked to Riku. "You did good too Riku."

"He only got lucky," Riku said before leaning back against the tree. Kairi's eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, but she didn't comment.

"Well, since we found everything and we don't have to go back until dark, we should watch the sunset here tonight!" Kairi jumped onto the tree.

"Sounds great," Sora said before jumping onto the tree as well.

"Are you two going to actually help with construction tomorrow or am I going to be left alone to do that too?" Riku asked.

"We'll help!"

"Yeah, we all want to see the other worlds, especially Kairi's!" Sora said before looking at Riku and Kairi. "Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?"

"Could be, we'll never know by staying here," Riku said.

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora asked.

"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else," Riku said.

"So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?" Kairi asked. Her answer was obvious, at least to Sora, she had to find her lost family and learn about her home world. He wanted to explore everywhere, but that never really explained why Riku wanted to go.

"Well, I haven't really thought about it," Riku said. "It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?

Sora lay down on the tree. "I don't know."

"That's why we need to go out there!" Riku's voice grew determined. "Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff! So let's go."

"You've been thinking a lot, haven't you?" Kairi asked. She seemed almost saddened by Riku's statement.

"Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of this," he said and smiled at her. "Kairi, thanks."

"You're welcome," she said. "It's going to be dark soon. We should head back."

"I guess…" Sora said. Kairi jumped off the tree first to head back to the docks. Sora went to follow her example, but was stopped by Riku.

"Sora," he said. A star shaped yellow fruit was tossed in his direction. "You wanted one, didn't you?"

"A paopu fruit…" he looked at it in confusion.

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll be a part of each other's lives no matter what." Riku repeated the legend that was famous among the islanders about the star shaped fruit. "C'mon, I know you want to try it."

"What are you talking-" Sora stopped as Riku walked by and laughed. He looked at the fruit for another moment, briefly thinking of Kairi before tossing it away. It was possible he had feelings for Kairi that went beyond friendship, but he hadn't actually thought of sharing the paopu fruit with her before.

-x-

In another world different than the one our protagonist lives on, a man wearing green with overalls was walking back to his house after a successful trip to the nearby town. "Big bro! I'm back!" The man shouted. "Still no news on the missing princesses, but-" he paused as on the table was a note addressed to Luigi. He picked up the note. "Off on some adventure without me aga-" he stopped as he read the contents before panicking.

"Princess! Princess!" He ran through the streets of the nearby town. He didn't pay attention to any of the mushroom residents and ran straight up to the castle at the head. As though by habit, he ran straight into the throne room.

"Luigi?" A woman dressed in pink stood up from her throne. Her blue eyes shone with worry over the man.

"Princess! It's horrible! Mario's gone!" Luigi said.

"Does that mean he found out where Daisy and Rosalina disappeared off to?" the princess asked.

"No I mean he's gone as in left the Mushroom Kingdom!" Luigi explained and handed her the letter. "Come on, we've got to go before-"

"Gwar har har! Mario, missing? I can't believe my luck that I chose today to capture Princess Peach!" A giant turtle entered the room through the front.

"No way! Just cause my bro isn't around doesn't mean you can capture the princess!" Luigi jumped in front of her.

"Hang on Luigi, Bowser might be able to help us," Peach said. "You will help us, especially since I plan on going to find Mario."

"Why would I help with that?" Bowser growled at her.

"Because the mission Mario left for will require your help and mine," Peach said. "Otherwise none of us could be around for much longer."

"But-"

"At least hear us out, please, for me?" Peach asked.

"Fine, but only because you asked," Bowser grumbled and sat on the floor of the throne room to listen to what the princess had to say.


	3. Chapter 2: A Mysterious Visitor

"Finally, done!" Sora fell back on the ground as they attached the last of the logs to the raft.

"It looks pretty good," Riku said as he admired their work on the raft.

"Now all that's left is to name it," Kairi said with a smile. "I'd like to name it Starlight!"

"Aw, come on Kairi! You're in charge of the building process and barely did any work! We should get to name it," Sora said and pouted. Kairi relented.

"Alright, fine, what do you want to name it then?" she asked.

"I was thinking Highwind, what about you Sora?" Riku asked.

"Hmm," Sora thought for a moment before an idea popped into his head. "Kingdom Key." _Where did that come from?_

"I like mine better," Riku said.

"Mine's better!" Sora frowned.

"We'll race for it then," Riku said.

"I'll referee," Kairi said and stood off to the side. "First one to navigate the obstacle course, touch the star, and make it back here wins."

"If I win, I get to be captain," Sora said. "And if you win…"

"I get to share a paopu with Kairi," Riku said.

Sora stared at him in confusion as though the words didn't process. "Huh?"

"Deal? The winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi," Riku said.

"Wha… Wait a minute…" Sora could only stare at Riku in shock. He couldn't lose this race now if he ever wanted to share one with Kairi. He then looked over to Kairi. If she heard the conversation, she had chosen to ignore it.

"Okay, on my count: 3…2…1…Go!" she shouted. Sora and Riku bolted off immediately. Sora hit the first platform with a slight lead. He jumped across each one until he arrived at a small rock ledge, where a zip line reached down to the other side. His hand grasped the zip line and he looked behind him at Riku, who had just arrived at the top of the rock. He quickly threw it back (it wouldn't be fair if he had an advantage Riku didn't) before touching the tree and sprinting back along the beach to wear Kairi stood. He arrived, triumphant, out of breath, captain of the newly named Kingdom Key, and ready to share the paopu that he hadn't really thought about sharing.

"Sora wins!" Kairi shouted just as Riku walked up. He was only one down now. Their next match would be the one that would make them even.

"Good job," Riku said. "I was just joking by the way, you didn't have to freak out like that."

"Well whatever you were joking about, quit it, because we need to collect provisions for the trip!" Kairi said. "Riku, I want you to find sea gull eggs, coconuts, and fish. Sora, you need to get us some fresh water and mushrooms." She handed Sora an empty jar.

"How much?" Riku asked.

"However many you two think we'll need to survive until we hit the first world," Kairi said. "Now go!"

"Okay," Sora walked away from Kairi and off toward the cliff side of the island where a small waterfall ran off. He pulled out the jar and ran it underneath the waterfall so as to collect the fresh water they would need. Nearby was a small cave. Remembering the fact that mushrooms tended to grow in the dark, he entered the cave to find the cavern that lay behind.

"Oh yeah!" he said," the Secret Place." He began walking around the cave and looking at all the drawings. In the corner, by where he found some mushrooms, he locked eyes on the picture.

"_Come on Sora, I'll draw you and you draw me! Okay?"_

"_But I can't draw Kairi!"_

"_I can't either, but it'll still be fun."_

He picked up a stone, long forgotten in the corner as they had stopped carving pictures in the cave long ago, and carved an arm next to his face. The arm reached out toward the Kairi face and offered her a star to represent the paopu fruit. He smiled at it, maybe he did want to share one with Kairi after all. He heard footsteps.

"Wh-Who's there?" He turned around to see a brown cloaked figure.

"I've come to see the door to this world," the figure said.

"Huh?"

"This world has been connected."

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Sora asked again.

"Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed." The figure continued to ignore Sora and his questions.

"Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this," Sora said. To him, it sounded like the figure was saying that his home, the islands, were about to be destroyed. He didn't want that. "Huh? Wh-Where did you come from?"

"You do not yet know what lies behind this door."

"So, you're from another world?" Sora asked. He felt an edge of excitement creep into his voice. Even though he was being warned his home was being destroyed, this person might know the fate of Kairi's homeworld.

"There is so much to learn. You understand so little."

"Oh yeah?" Sora gaped at the figure. "Well, you'll see! I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there."

"A meaningless effort," the figure said. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." The figure vanished, leaving Sora confused.

"What just happened?" he asked aloud. This definitely added onto the weirdness of the past couple of days, so he simply left the cave with the mushrooms in hand and went back to the other side of the island where Kairi stood waiting. She was moving string through shells while she stood.

"Hey Kairi, what's that?" Sora asked. He looked at the charm with curiosity. She jumped in surprise.

"Oh, this? I'm working on a necklace made of thalassa shells. In the old days sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure safe voyage," she said. Her face had turned slightly red as though she hadn't wanted Sora to see it.

"I think that's pretty awesome!" Sora said with a smile. "Anyways, I got the last of the stuff."

"Really, that's great!" Kairi smiled. "Riku finished up his collecting and went home already, so do you want to watch the sunset, just the two of us?"

Now it was Sora's turn to blush. "Uh…sure!"

"Okay, just give me a few minutes to gather up the last of the shells I'll need for my necklace and we can go to the docks to watch it!" Kairi ran towards the shore of the beach while Sora went to the dock. He watched her sit down, deep in concentration, and pick up a couple more shells to thread onto the charm. When she was finished, she walked over to Sora and sat down next to him.

"So you've finished?" Sora asked.

"Not quite yet, but it's close enough where I'll have it finished by tomorrow," she said. They sat in silence for a while. He noticed the unhappy look on her face and sighed.

"Kairi, what's wrong?" he asked. Was it possible she'd heard his earlier conversation with Riku or the cloaked figure and it was bothering her?

"You know, Riku has changed," she said slowly. It was like she was trying to pick just the right words so that way Sora wouldn't be upset.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well…" she started, but couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted to say.

"You okay?"

"Sora, let's take the raft and go- just the two of us." This was drastically out of character for Kairi. It just didn't make sense that she wouldn't want Riku to join them.

"Huh?" He stared at her in shock.

"Just kidding," she laughed, and he started to laugh as well.

"What's gotten into you? You're the one that's changed, Kairi," he said. She stood up and his gaze followed her movement.

"Maybe…you know, I was a little afraid to go at first, but now I'm ready," she said. Sora looked at her in surprise. She'd never seemed to not want to go or seemed scared. The fact that she had been made him slightly worried. "No matter where I go or what I see, I can always come back here. Right?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, of course!" his voice sounded slightly too excited, even for who he was. Maybe the cloaked figure from earlier was just making him nervous.

"That's good, Sora. Don't ever change," she said.

"Huh?"

"I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."

-x-

"To Luigi,

Sorry I left, but I heard rumors about what might have happened to Daisy and Rosalina. I heard they were kidnapped by a madman who wants to destroy the worlds. I don't know much about him yet, but I'm going to find out. Let Peach know that I'm gone and apologize that I didn't tell her where I would be going, but I have to take this chance now. I'll send more word when I find out, but in the meantime, keep her safe and get word out to Bowser, he might be able to help us out.

Your bro, Mario," Luigi read the letter to Bowser as quickly as possible.

"See Bowser, that's why you have to help," Peach said.

"But…I don't wanna help!" Bowser complained. "There's no way I'll ever help out Mario."

"But Bowser, if you don't there won't be any place left where you can rule and I'll be gone," Peach said.

"No!" Bowser insisted.

"Come on, you'll get to spend more time with the princess if you do," Luigi said to bribe the Koopa King.

"What?" Bowser glanced at Peach and growled. "Alright, but just so I can spend more time with Peach."

"Good, now we need to-"

"Excuse me…I'm looking for a Princess Peach, Luigi, and King Bowser," a small rainbow butterfly flew into the room in front of the three.

"That would be us," Luigi said.

"Excellent. My name is Tippi, and Mario sent me," Tippi said.

"What did he say?" Peach asked.

"You three are supposed to head to a world called Traverse Town to look for a key," Tippi said. "He will be the one to fulfill the prophecy within the Light Prognosticus. A man called Leon is supposed to be able to help."

"Back up, what's going on?" Peach asked.

"Mario came to visit Merlon in search of advice. Mario then proceeded to ask Merlon about what's happening, who then lent him me after supplying the answers to help you three and the key," Tippi said. "I'm a Pixl, one of few fairy like creatures with unique abilities, in my case, I know everything about everything."

"So what's this Light Pragmatics thingy then?" Bowser asked.

"It's Prognosticus, but I digress," Tippi said. "It's an ancient book of prophecies that was created to prevent the prophecies its sister book predicts from occurring. The Dark Prognosticus predicts the end of the universe many times over. Unfortunately the light one is very vague, so we don't know who this key is and anything about the threats to the worlds besides their name, the Heartless."

Peach looked at Tippi for a moment in thought. "So you'll be coming with us Miss Tippi?"

"Until the worlds are safe, yes, then I'll be returning back to Merlon," Tippi said. "I'll be chronicling everything that happens along our journey for the future as well. It was Merlon's idea."

"Then come on, let's go to the Toad brigade's ship already and get going!" Luigi said.

"I'll call Captain Toad, it should be ready in about ten minutes," Peach said.


	4. Chapter 3: Storm of Darkness

Sora lay awake in his room after watching the sunset with Kairi. He couldn't shake the conversation out of his mind. Why would she want to leave Riku behind, out of all of them, he was the most excited, so why would she even mention it.

"_You know, Riku has changed."_

"_Sora, don't ever change."_

"_I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."_

"Hopefully tomorrow, she'll see that nothing's changed about Riku and we'll on enjoy the adventure!" Sora leaned back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Thunder rumbled outside and he ran over to his window to look outside. Lightning flashed from menacing clouds over the islands. "A storm?" a storm meant wind and strong waves. "Oh, no, the raft!" He jumped out the window as soon as he could. He needed to secure the raft as quickly as possible to make sure it would stay on the island. Behind him, he heard his mother call for him. He'd explain where he was as soon as he came back from securing the raft. As quickly as he could he reached his small row boat and rowed out to the smaller island across the way.

_I just hope the raft's safe,_ Sora thought. He arrived on the island and looked at the docks to see two other similarly sized boats.

"What's that?" His eyes widened. "Riku's boat. And Kairi's!" he said. Panic began to creep into him, that meant both his friends were here and possibly securing the raft, but what if something happened to them. He started to head towards where they planned on keeping the raft to find some black shadows appearing out of the ground. They were small creatures with antennae popping out of their heads. The only feature on them that wasn't black was their two yellow eyes.

"The creatures from my dream!" He pulled out his wooden sword and raised it just in time to block their claws from hitting him. He slashed through it only for his sword to go right through, doing no damage whatsoever. "I've gotta find Riku and Kairi!" He ran around to the small paopu island where Riku normally hid out. His friend was standing there, his back turned to Sora.

"Riku!" he shouted. Riku didn't turn around. "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"

"The door has been opened…" the response made little sense to Sora. It didn't reveal the location of the young red haired girl or anything of real importance. In fact, it reminded him of the cloaked figure from the secret place and of his dream. Was the door Riku talking about the same one he would open?

"What?"

"The door is open, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" Riku said. Sora looked at him in confusion. The raft was their way to the outside world, not this door.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked. "We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku shouted back. "Once we step through we may never be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this is our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" He reached his hand out to Sora.

"Riku!" Sora reached for Riku as tendrils of darkness began swarming around Sora and Riku, trying to drown them both in it. It was just like his dream, and nobody was able to save him, just like in his dream, he would die, except there was no waking up from this, it was real.

A bright light flashed in his hand, removing the darkness from Sora, but Riku was gone. A new weapon was in his hand, this one shaped oddly like a key. The key was silver at its blade; the teeth looked like a crown as it connected to a gold hilt with a red handle in the center where his hand was. Hanging off the edge attached to a chain was a small red mushroom with eyes and white circles at the top, similar to the mushroom that emblazoned the weapons in his dream. His eyes looked over the new weapon with wonder.

"_Keyblade…Keyblade…" _A mysterious voice answered the unasked question of what the weapon was. It was much like the one from his dream that guided him. He looked at the Keyblade one more time before turning around to face the creatures behind him. They had started sneaking up behind him while he'd been distracted. His Keyblade went through one with ease, turning it into a cloud of darkness within three hits.

He started slashing through the shadows as quickly as possible with a goal of finding Kairi. She had to be somewhere on the islands, it wasn't possible for her to just simply disappear and if he couldn't find her, then those creatures might have killed her. It wasn't long before he arrived at the last place to check, the small cave behind the waterfall. The cave's opening however, was now a large white door rather than an open mouth. Something was happening to his island, something bad. He opened the door and ran through the cave as quickly as possible to find Kairi. She was in there, but her skin was pale as she sat in front of the door that was unable to be opened, probably the door both Riku and the figure had mentioned.

"Kairi!" he shouted.

"Sora…" a gust came out of the door, knocking her into him. As he went to catch her, she vanished in his arms. The dark wind continued to push him back until he was forced out of the cave. He watched as the cave itself disappeared. He looked up to see a strange dark ball in the sky in shades of purple and black. It appeared to be sucking up the islands around him, as all that appeared to be left to his home was the small platform of sand he was standing on.

"Kairi!" he called out her name in hopes that she'd simply been blown out of the cave. The only response he got was a large black giant shadow with a heart shaped hole around its chest. It was the giant from his dream, and now it was taking out his home rather than some strange stained glass platform with a girl on it. The Keyblade appeared back in his hand as thought summoned by magic and he ran towards it, hitting its hand like last time as it punched the ground to generate more of the shadows from earlier. The Keyblade did more damage than his shield did, or at least he thought it did since the monster lifted its hand from the ground much quicker only managing to generate one shadow before stopping its creation of the dark pool.

He slashed out at the shadow quickly to take it out. He rolled out of the way as the giant through another punch at him. While he avoided the giant's fist, he was not fortunate enough to avoid the shockwave that came afterwards, which knocked him back towards the edge of the small piece of island left. He started to run after the giant only to begin being pelted by energy balls of darkness. He remembered how his shield in the dream would allow the hit to return to him, so he lifted up his Keyblade to avoid the strike and rebound them towards its face. After a few successful returns (and some not so successful ones) the giant stopped striking him with the energy bullets and this time punched the ground again. This time, Sora was ready for the coming shockwave and jumped out of the way to avoid the energy that sent him back. He ran up to the giant as it was recuperating and began striking at it.

He began ignoring the giant's move, only stopping his attacks when it was necessary to prevent being hit or when he had to lift up his Keyblade to hit the giant in the face, which did more damage to it than just hitting at its hand like he was doing. After one final strike, the creature lost its hold on the island of sand and began floating away.

"I…did it!" he cheered before leaning on his knee. The suction from the sphere above his head was stronger than he expected, and it wasn't long before he was taken off the ground and pulled away from his island to watch as the last of it disappeared from sight.

"_No…"_

-x-

"Hey Tippi, what's the consequence for not defeating the Heartless?" Peach asked. The four plus Pixl had just arrived in a new world.

"They devour all hearts, princess. A world can't survive without a heart because it's the source of the light, and as such, the world ceases to exist," Tippi said. "We can see this as a star going out in the sky."

"I see…" Peach nodded. She felt anything else she was about to say die in her throat as Luigi tapped her on the shoulder.

"Princess!" he said. His finger pointed up to the sky, where one of the bright points in the night sky was flashing into darkness.

"That stars going out," Tippi said.

"We have to help!" Peach said. "If we hurry-"

"There's nothing you can do. We won't be able to reach it in time." Tippi's voice was saddened by the fact, but she said it nonetheless. "The only thing we can do is try to bring it back by defeating the Heartless."

"But-"

"You heard the butterfly Peach! The world's gone, so stop worrying about it," Bowser said.

"All those people…we have to help Mario stop this!" Peach looked away as the star gave one last weak pulse of light before it stopped shining all together.

"We will, the sooner we find Leon, the sooner we can complete the mission," Luigi said.

"You're looking for Leon?" A woman in a pink dress with brown hair walked up to them. Her hair was braided and held back by two red ribbons.

"Mario sent us," Tippi said.

"Of course, follow me," the woman said. "We've all been waiting for you for a long time."


	5. Chapter 4: Traverse Town

When Sora awoke he was no longer under the stormy sky of the island, rather a starry night sky within an alley way surrounded by light brown buildings and pavement beneath him.

"What a dream…" he said before closing his eye to go back to sleep. All of a sudden it hit him. He bolted onto his two feet in surprise. "This isn't a dream!" He ran out of the alley in complete and utter shock. His eyes skimmed the foreign buildings and signs of the area. "Where am I? Kairi! Riku!" Neither of his friends answered his call. "Am I in another world?" he wondered aloud. "I hope they made it too…"

He started to wander around the main streets of the world. "Excuse me!" He shouted at a man. "Where am I?"

"You're in Traverse Town," the man said. "Are you new?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for my friends," Sora said.

"Well hopefully they're here, so good luck." The man walked away from Sora. He continued to wander around the area. He talked to everybody on the streets, but neither had seen Riku or Kairi. In the end, he entered some of the shops to search.

"Hey there, how can I…Aw it's only a kid," the owner of the shop said to Sora as he walked in. He glared at the blond with goggles on his head.

"I'm not a kid! And the name's Sora!" he said, slightly indignant at being called a kid.

"Okay, okay, so simmer down," the man said. "So why the long face Sora? You lost or something?"

"No! Well…maybe." Sora hadn't wanted to admit the fact, but besides the place's name, he had no idea what it was, or even if it was another world or just a part of the islands he hadn't seen yet. "What is this place?"

"Huh?" the man asked.

"I mean, I was on my islands one minute, and the next, I'm here," Sora explained.

"This place is Traverse Town. It's a refuge," the man said.

"A refuge…So, gramps, is this really another world?" Sora asked. He hadn't expected to leave Destiny Islands with those shadows, but if this was a refuge world, did that mean his home was gone.

"Don't call me gramps! The name's Cid!" the man said. "Anyway…not sure what you're talkin' about, but this sure ain't your islands."

"Hmm…guess I'd better keep looking for Riku and Kairi then," Sora said with a sigh. He'd hoped when he finally left his islands they'd be with him, but both of his best friends were now missing.

"Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doing," Cid said and waved as Sora exited the shop. "If you ever run into trouble, you come to me. I'll look out for you."

After he left the shop, Sora began walking around the Traverse Town plaza, but little else was there. Seeing no other option, he exited through the two doors in the back. They lead him into a slightly narrower area with more buildings and shops lining either side. He walked into the center, only to be surprised as a man bolted in from the left side chased by the shadows from his island. He went to help the man, but the shadow reached him first, reaching at him with his claws the shadow attacked the man, causing a crystal pink heart to float out of him. The heart became shrouded in darkness as a blue humanoid creature with a silver helmet appeared. A red and black thorny heart was on its chest. The creature vanished moments later, but not before more black shadows could appear.

"It's those creatures from my island!" Sora realized and summoned out his Keyblade once more. He began slashing at them quickly, fighting his way through the shadows and the new helmeted creatures. While fighting, he noticed the helmeted ones were stronger than the shadows, so he concentrated on them, ignoring the hits that would strike every once in a while. He continued down another path and found the next area, this one defined by a statue of a dinosaur and a strange creature wearing a bow. The new area also held a new creature, this one large and round, bearing the same symbol as the strange helmeted ones. He tried running at it to hit it, but his Keyblade didn't land a hit, simply bouncing off as the creature tried to body slam him. He barely managed to roll out of the way of this new creature before it charged at him again. He raised his Keyblade, and while no damage was done, he was pushed back several inches.

"I have to get out of here!" He realized and cut across to the entrance the creature was guarding. It lead back into the area of Traverse Town Sora had initially appeared in. He sighed in relief, happy that this area was still unaffected and he had escaped the creatures. Remembering what Cid had said, he walked back into the shop from earlier.

"Back already?" Cid asked.

"I was being attacked by these weird creatures while looking for my friends and there was this big one that I couldn't seem to damage," Sora said. "How can I beat them?"

"I'll tell you what, you find your friends, and I'll tell the three of you how to beat them, so that way I don't have to tell the same information twice," Cid said.

"Okay," Sora said and walked outside of the shop. He was planning on going back to the place where he'd first started seeing the creatures. Maybe in his fight and panic he'd managed to miss them somewhere, and it would be possible to find them if he searched those areas again, and who knew, maybe the large round creature might have been gone by then.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." Sora turned around to see the owner of the voice that had spoken, a brunet with a scar that went down his face. He was carrying a large blade with him.

"Who are you?" Sora asked. The man didn't answer and instead simply approached Sora.

"And they'll keep on coming at you as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade," he said. "But why, why would it choose a kid like you?"

Sora was indignant; he didn't think he was a bad choice for wielder of the Keyblade at all. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Never mind," the man said. "Now let me see that Keyblade."

"What? There's no you're getting this!" The Keyblade was the one weapon he used that allowed him to fight those creatures, and without it there was no way he could find Riku and Kairi. He had to keep the Keyblade for himself, whether this guy wanted it or not.

"All right, then have it your way." The man lifted up his long blade and took aim at Sora. Rather than running towards Sora as he was prepared for, bullets came out of the weapons front aimed directly at him. Sora rolled out of the way as quickly as possible only to get cornered and hit by the blade, knocking him back.

_This guy's strong,_ Sora thought. The man was definitely stronger than Riku. He was sure about that much. Sora ran at the man and tried to hit him with his Keyblade, the man lifted up his blade with little effort and pushed Sora away, causing him to find himself backed into a corner as another strike was fired at him. Without much of a choice, Sora ran at the man again, this time landing a hit that didn't faze the man at all. Even Sora's strongest attack barely seemed to do any damage against the man, which provided a problem. He knew he wasn't at full strength as it was since the battle against the giant shadow on his island, he knew he stood very little chance. He aimed one strike at the man's knee, which seemed to catch him by surprise; however the hits from his battles on the islands and here were taking their toll on Sora. He could barely stand up.

"Now… you're…gonna…you're gonna…" He collapsed where he stood, his body hitting the ground as he fought for consciousness, barely able to hear the words around him.

"Aw, you're slipping Leon," a girl's voice said.

"I went easy on him. Still, it looks like things are a lot worse off than we thought. A lot worse," the man, Leon, said. Sora felt hurt slightly that this man had been going easy on him. It meant that he was weaker than he thought.

He lost consciousness.


	6. Chapter 5: Start of a Team

"Come on lazy bum. Wake up." The words hit Sora's consciousness before he woke up and it was like a bolt of energy hit him. It couldn't have been Kairi, if she was really here, then did that mean he had found her. Then the two of them could look for Riku. He opened his eyes and sure enough, the red head was there in the hotel room he was now in.

"You okay?" Kairi asked.

"I guess…" Sora said. He was still embarrassed, and a little upset, over losing to the man in the earlier fight.

"Those creatures that attacked you were after the Keyblade. But it's you heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade," Kairi said. It sounded like she was explaining the creatures to him, which didn't make sense since she couldn't know about them; then again, so long as she was okay, he could ask her later.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Kairi," he said and smiled.

"Kairi?" she asked. Her face contorted in confusion, leading Sora to believe he was wrong. Maybe this girl was from Kairi's world and was her identical twin, how else could she look exactly like Kairi? "Who are you talking about? I'm the great ninja master Yuffie." All of a sudden "Kairi" disappeared, only to be replaced by a girl with short black hair and green outfit. "I think you might've overdone it Squall."

"That's Leon," it was only then that he noticed the man from earlier in the room. That must have been Leon, although what made him change to that from Squall made Sora slightly curious. He looked next to Leon to see his Keyblade lying there. They hadn't stolen it from him, just taken it out of his hands.

"The Keyblade…" Yuffie seemed to notice his staring. "Yeah, we had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures. It turns out that's how they were tracking you." Was that why they'd only shown up in places he was and why nobody else seemed to comment on them, or was that why they tended to swarm him. Sora was so confused.

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them," Leon said. "But it won't work for long. Still hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one." He picked up the Keyblade and in a flash of light, the Keyblade returned to Sora's hand. It wasn't until that moment that he realized it had been weird to see the Keyblade out of his possession. "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

"Why don't you start making sense? What's going on here?" Sora asked. He was ready for his answers.

-x-

"Okay, you know there are other worlds out there besides this town and your kingdom, right?" the woman asked Luigi, Bowser, and Peach.

"Rosalina has mentioned them a few times, but I'm afraid this has been the only time I've been to another world willingly," Peach said with a glance at Bowser.

"Hey! What's that look mean?!" Bowser asked.

"She's implying the only times she's ever left the world were because of you kidnapping her," Luigi said.

"What? You're lying!" Bowser growled.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes you are!"

"Ignoring those two," Tippi said. "Aren't the other worlds always supposed to remain hidden from each other?"

"Normally yes, but the recent years haven't been normal, as you're existence proves," the woman said. "They've only remained hidden so long because they weren't connected. When the Heartless came, everything changed."

-x-

"The Heartless?" Sora asked. He'd never heard that term used to describe a species before.

"The ones who attacked you, remember," Yuffie said. So that was what the shadows and other creatures he ran into on the islands and in Traverse Town were.

"Those without hearts," Leon explained. "The darkness in other people's hearts-that's what attracts them. And there is darkness in every heart."

"Hey, have you ever heard of someone named Ansem?" Yuffie asked.

-x-

"I don't think so," Luigi said. "Peach, Tippi?" He didn't even bother naming Bowser, if those two didn't know it wasn't likely Bowser would.

"I've never heard of him either in all the books in the Mushroom Kingdom," Peach said.

"I've heard the name before, but I do not know anything about him," Tippi said. "Who is he?"

"He was studying the Heartless. He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report," the woman said.

"Wait there's all this info on those Heartless guys and you aren't showing them to us?" Bowser asked.

"Its pages were scattered," the woman said.

"So go find them then! They've all got to be somewhere around here," Bowser said.

"It's not that simple, they were scattered all over the worlds," she said.

"I suppose that causes a problem then," Peach said and put her hand up to her chin in thought. "Perhaps that's where Mario's gone, to gather these reports so he can know more about the Heartless."

"Those were my thoughts." The woman smiled.

"Well, let's go find my bro then!" Luigi jumped up from his seat.

"Hang on. Luigi, we still have to find the key before we can look for Mario," Tippi reminded him.

"That's right, the Keyblade," the woman said.

-x-

"So…this is the key?" Sora asked as he looked at the Keyblade again.

Yuffie nodded. "Exactly!"

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade," Leon explained. "That's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what."

"Well, I didn't ask for this." He threw the Keyblade away from him, only for it to return in a burst of light moments later in his hand.

"The Keyblade chooses its master. And it chose you," Yuffie said.

"So tough luck," Leon added.

"How did all this happen? I remember being in my room…" It hit him. He had thought Riku and Kairi were in Traverse Town, but after exploring around it was obvious neither were there, and there was still the matter of why he wasn't on his islands. He didn't know where his islands were and where his two best friends were. He had to know. "Wait a minute! What happened to my home? My island? Riku! Kairi!"

"You know what? I really don't know," Leon said.

"Leon!"

"No, it's okay," Sora said and put on a fake smile. "I bet Riku and Kairi are somewhere in Traverse Town and then the three of us can look for the islands together."

"That's the spirit!" Yuffie smiled at him.

Leon frowned. "Sooner or later, the Heartless will find you. You'd best prepare yourself."

"Prepare yourself?" he echoed.

"To fight for your life. Are you ready?" Leon asked.

"I'm ready!" Sora said. Maybe now he'd learn how to be a better fighter by taking out the Heartless and making up for his embarrassing loss against Leon earlier.

"Yuffie, let's go join Aerith," Leon said. "She should be there by now with the other visitors."

Yuffie's eyes looked toward the door. "Leon!" One of the helmeted Heartless had appeared.

"Yuffie go!" Leon commanded. Yuffie bolted out the door, slamming the door into Luigi as she went out and passing by the woman, Peach, Bowser, and Tippi.

"Yuffie?" the woman asked. After a second she followed the ninja master out of the room. The Heartless ran out of the window.

"Sora, let's go!" Leon jumped out the window after it, closely followed by Sora. They arrived in an alleyway outside the hotel. "Don't bother with the small fry. Find the leader. Let's go." He began fighting his way towards the area where Sora had first arrived in, leaving Sora to head in the direction of the fountain he had found. He ran out back into the second area he'd entered, Heartless swarming all over the place. He found himself facing the Heartless with the helmet and slashing at them in an attempt to kill them. He raised his Keyblade to block their kicks and slashed at them as they were momentarily stunned by the block. As each one of the helmeted Heartless fell, they released a small crystalline heart much like the one that formed them. Several of the black shadow Heartless surrounded him, but remembering Leon's words, he ran towards the entrance to the fountain area. One of the large round Heartless blocked the way.

"I have to take this thing out," Sora thought aloud before gripping his Keyblade tighter. This time when the Heartless jumped into the air to crush him, he rolled forward to get out of its way, giving him a view of its back. He slashed at it, and the Heartless seemed to stumble for a moment before charging at him and facing him. He realized that's how it had to be beaten, by attacking it from behind, so that's what he did, he attacked it from behind and it wasn't long before the Heartless had sustained enough damage that it fell.

"Yes!" he cheered. His happiness was short lived as more of the helmeted Heartless and shadow Heartless appeared. Realizing that the large round Heartless was not his target, he began to attack the ones around him to clear the path to the fountain area. Once they were defeated, he entered the area and ran to the center. Fighting on top of a building were Bowser, Luigi, and Peach.

"So many…" Tippi looked at Sora. "They all arrived when he entered the area."

"You don't think he's the one we're looking for, do you?" Luigi asked.

"That shrimp, I bet-" Bowser stopped as he saw Sora summon out his Keyblade.

"The Keyblade…" Tippi said. Her voice was filled with a slight awe.

"Then let's go!" Peach jumped off and opened her parasol to glide down gently and land next to Sora. Luigi and Bowser also jumped off the building, although their landing was a lot less gentle, shaking the ground beneath Sora's feet as Bowser landed. Tippi fluttered down.

"Who-"

"Heartless first!" Peach slammed her parasol into the Heartless beside her, one of the black shadows and took it out in one hit before turning towards another one and striking it. Bowser unleashed a torrent of flames at another of the Heartless, setting it on fire and killing it quickly. Luigi combated the Heartless with punches of his fist and quick bursts of green flames that erupted, and they made quick work of the surrounding Heartless.

"Now then, I'm-" before Tippi could start the introductions off, a large purple Heartless appeared from the ground. This Heartless appeared to be made of an armor with eyes out of the head and the thorny heart on the chest plate. "That's a Guard Armor Heartless. It's made of six individual segments that can all attack at once. If you take out the arms and legs, its head will be left defenseless."

"You know all that from a glance?" Sora asked.

"It's her talent," Bowser said. "Now are you gonna help us take out this Heartless or not?"

"Right!" Sora nodded and began to attack the hands of the Heartless. It began stomping and slapping its hands in his direction. Each stomp left a small shockwave that damaged Sora, as did each slap of the hand. He was constantly raising his Keyblade and rolling to get out of its way as the Heartless continued its rampage. Sora ended up in Bowser's direction as the large turtle unleashed another breath of flames on it, dealing damage and taking attention away from Sora. He ducked inside of his shell while Peach came up and attacked the torso with her parasol and ducked under it, protecting herself from all of its attacks. Sora ran up after it and once more slashed at it with his Keyblade, this time finding himself back to back with Luigi, who leaped up to punch it once more. Its body separated, the hands and feet no longer connected to the torso.

"You help me with the arms," Peach said to Sora. "You two attack the feet."

"Why does he get to work with you?" Bowser asked.

"Because you're better at ground targets," Peach said and with that turned to the arms before once more attacking it with her parasol. Sora followed her lead and slashed at it with his Keyblade. The two concentrated their efforts with both weapons. Occasionally she would release a pink heart from the tip of her parasol that allowed her to deal more damage to the hand than just her parasol alone. Whenever an attack came, she would effortlessly duck underneath and avoid taking damage. He threw his Keyblade at the hands to draw their attention away from Peach. As they went to go attack him, she pulled a frying pan out from her pockets and hit them with it. Both hands vanished.

Meanwhile, Luigi and Bowser were working on the feet. Luigi found himself constantly running out of range of the feet and their shockwaves while Bowser breathed fire on them.

"Come on Luigi! Do something!" Bowser shouted in anger.

Luigi threw a green fireball at the feet once more. "I'm trying! But I can't get close to these feet," he said.

"Then stomp 'em like that annoying Mario does!" Bowser said. Luigi, now feeling slightly stupid, leapt into the air and landed on one foot, not that it did that much damage. Bowser came up behind and clawed at the two feet, causing one to vanish while the other remained. The Keyblade soared through the air and destroyed the other foot.

"Thought you might need a hand," Sora said and smiled. Luigi and Bowser looked at each other in shock.

"Get your acts together; you still need to take out the head!" Tippi shouted at the duo who looked to see Sora and Peach both defending against the large Heartless as the torso began spinning into them, hardly giving one an opportunity to attack before they were forced on guard again. Luigi ran up first and once again punched the Guard Armor before leading it into Bowser's fire breath. Eventually it stopped spinning and its head fell off. With the head on the ground and it making no motion to get back up, it was subjected to a barrage of fists, Keyblade, parasol, and claws. Eventually a large heart emerged from the body as it vanished, leaving the four heroes a moment to catch their own breath.

"So you guys were looking for me, right?" Sora asked.

"Yup, my bro sent us out to look for you!" Luigi said.

"They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade," Leon said as he entered through the other entrance to the fountain area.

"We need you to help us on our journey," Tippi explained.

"We would be incredibly grateful if you traveled with us. You'd get to see a ton of worlds," Peach said.

"I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi…" Sora thought.

"Of course!" Bowser said.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Tippi said and fluttered over to Sora. "We don't know if your friends survived the Heartless attack, but if they did, we'll help you find them."

"You should go with them Sora, especially if you want to find your friends," Leon said.

"I guess…" Sora said.

"Oh come on, Sora, was it?" Peach asked. "I promise we'll find your friends out there, but if they see you're upset, they might get upset too, so smile, okay?"

"Smile?" Sora asked. He made a wide grin and Peach giggled.

"Maybe not that big, but that's the right idea," she said.

"I guess I'll go with you guys," Sora said.

"I'm Princess Peach, but please don't add the princess part on," Peach said.

"I'm Luigi!"

"I'm the Koopa King, Bowser, and don't you forget it."

"I'm Tippi. I'm helping them on their quest in order to tell them about the foes like I did with the Guard Armor."

"She's also the last remaining Pixl," Peach added on. "And because she's a Pixl she can do the scan thing."

"I'm Sora," he said.

"I know, I also know your best friends are Riku and Kairi because of my scan, so if I scan anybody with either of those names, you'll be the first to know," Tippi said.

"Thanks!" Sora smiled.

"Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead of you. We don't know how far the Heartless have spread," Leon said as they walked back to the area Sora had woken up in. The woman and Yuffie were there.

"You should check out the shops before you go, they're all pretty cool," Yuffie said and waved.

"This is from all of us to spend as you see fit," the woman said and handed him a small pouch with yellow and purple stones. "My name is Aerith."

"Nice to meet you Aerith," Sora said.

"This is from me," Leon handed Sora a yellow bottle. "Use it if you get into trouble."

"Thanks!" Sora smiled.

"Good luck!" Yuffie said.

"I hope you find your friends," Aerith added.

"Look out for each other and keep your spirits up," Leon said. Sora nodded and followed the other three out to the front gate.

"So what's out here anyways?" Sora asked.

"You see, when Bowser once kidnapped Peach, long story," Luigi added the long story part at the last minute, "he took off world. We were helped by an interworld princess named Rosalina. She helped us travel and gave some Toads a ship. Since Rosalina's missing, the Toad Brigade gave us their ship to travel the worlds." He indicated the red mushroom shaped ship.

"Don't worry about it being too small, there's room for five," Peach said.

"It also only needs three people to control it at maximum, so we should have an easy time with that as well," Tippi said. "There's a small combat training room below the main deck as well as a cabin for rest. Since you won't be piloting it, you can rest."

"We'll let you know when we arrive at the first world, so catch up on your rest. You've been through a lot," Luigi said.

"How come he gets to rest and not me?!" Bowser growled.

"Bowser, when your homeworld gets destroyed, you lose all of the Koopalings, Kammy and Kamek, and Bowser Jr., and have no idea how to drive the Starshroom then you can rest too now. Until then, you get to drive to the first world."

"Fine!" he shouted.

"If you don't mind Sora, I'll show you around the second half of the ship and explain the controls," Tippi said.

"Sure," Sora said. Tippi began to describe the control panel to him.

-x-

Riku woke up on floating platforms in a field of water. "Where…am I?" He looked up at the looming castle in front of him. "Kairi! Sora!"

-x-

"So…um, Count, the Keyblade Wielder managed to get rid of the Heartless in Traverse Town," a blue skinned woman with purple hair said. She was dressed as a secretary with glasses covering her eyes.

"Unexpected indeed, but not a problem, the plan shall continue, said Count Bleck." The creature who said this was strange indeed, as he had no visible body, and was simply a blue head atop a white cape with a top hat on. One of his gloved hands held a staff that was topped with a light blue gem. His eyes glowed red.

"'Ey Count! Where do ya think they'll go next! I want ta have a chance ta fight with 'em!" a man asked. He was pale compared to the other too, with segmented, muscular arms and a black outfit.

"Do not worry O'Chunks. Count Bleck does not believe they will be a problem. We shall ignore them until they prove otherwise," the creature said.

"Yes, a very good plan indeed," the one who said this was a jester. He had on purple and yellow attire, but covering his face was an eerie black and white mask, obscuring it from view. "Why should we waste time on these enemies who might not even make it very far to begin with."

"Golly, that makes a lot of sense Count." the final minion in the room said. She was a green girl with two green pigtails.

"Yes, speaking of, Mimi, Count Bleck needs you to pick up somebody immediately, he will have one of the girls we are looking for," the creature said.

"Of course! Be back in a jiffy!" The girl teleported away in an instant.


	7. Chapter 6: Hyrule's Princess

"We've arrived. Let's get to that new world!" Luigi said. Sora poked his head up top, slightly grateful not to hear another earful from Tippi about the how to run the Starshroom, although he had to admit it was a little interesting to learn how to shoot the Heartless.

"So what's this world going to be like?" Sora asked them.

"We don't know. With any luck, they won't try to kill us," Bowser said.

"Don't worry Bowser, I doubt we'll have much to worry about," Peach said. "So long as you don't fall into your old habits, we'll be fine."

"Oh, Sora," Tippi said, "before we go down to this world, you should know that most worlds don't know of the existence of other worlds, you can interact, but if you reveal that other worlds are out there, we might get into big trouble. If there's an easy lie to make yourself seem like a resident of the world, don't hesitate to take advantage of it."

"Oh, okay," Sora said. With that they landed the Starshroom in the outskirts of the grassy plain. The land around them was large and wide, in their view was a beautiful white castle surrounded by guards.

"I say we go in there!" Bowser suggested. "There's bound to be a princess with information."

"Old habits die hard," Luigi said with a laugh. Peach joined in a second later while Sora watched them in confusion.

"Actually, Bowser might be onto something," Tippi said. "Both of the missing people you three know are princesses, if a princess does live in the castle, which my scan tells me there is, it's possible our kidnapper might be targeting this princess as well."

"So we get to break in to talk to a princess!" Bowser gained a shock look on his face.

"Should be fun," Sora said. "How do we do it?"

"We should be stealthy," Luigi said. "Can anyone turn invisible?"

"No…" Sora shook his head.

"Then we do this my way," Bowser said. He laughed before firing a fireball at the castle wall. The wall broke, but interestingly enough, none of the guards seemed to deviate from their route to investigate the disturbance. "I guess castles everywhere have this bad a security!"

"Glad to know mine isn't the only bad one," Peach sighed before entering the wall. "I feel horrible about this…"

"Cheer up Peach; it's only this one time!" Sora said to her. He pushed open the door in front of them to see a young girl wearing a purple dress. She had blonde hair falling down to her shoulders and pointy ears.

"How did you four get in?" The girl asked. "Wouldn't the guards keep you out."

"Princess, your security is no match for Bowser!" Bowser laughed.

"Link said it was hard to get passed them," the girl said. "Are you four friends of him? I've never seen a turtle like you before, but the brown haired boy has a fairy like the Kokiri and the other two could be Hylian."

"That's right, I'm Peach, and these are Sora and Tippi, Luigi, and Bowser," Peach indicated each of them. "Bowser's a special…erm…turtle."

"My name's Princess Zelda," Zelda said. "How come you're here?"

"If you don't mind princess, we have a few questions. A few princesses my friends are friends with were recently kidnapped. We were hoping you might have a suspect or two that we could investigate," Tippi said.

"Please, call me Zelda, but there is one guy…" Zelda pointed out the window at a dark skinned man in the throne room. "His name's Ganondorf, and I think he wants to hurt Hyrule somehow. I already sent a new friend of mine named Link to help out, but if we can prevent him from gaining the Triforce we should be able to stop him from leaving the world and taking any more princesses."

"Link?" Sora asked.

"He's a Kokiri like you, except his fairy is different from Tippi. He's collecting the three Spiritual Stones for me so Ganondorf can't get them. If you can bring him here when he's done, then we wouldn't have to worry anymore," Zelda said. "Maybe you guys can go get him for me."

"What does he look like?" Luigi asked.

"He wears a green tunic and has blond hair and pointy ears and blue eyes," Zelda said. "He's also really young!"

"Alright Zelda, we'll come back soon," Sora said and they exited out the same hole of entry Bowser had created. The moment they left the room, Heartless began their swarm. Most of them were the helmeted and large variety from Traverse Town, but a few were skeleton creatures with the thorny heart on the shields they carried.

"Tippi! Scan!" Sora said.

"The helmeted kind are the Soldier Heartless. They're not very strong and go down in a few hits. They attack primarily through kicks. The round ones are the Large Body Heartless. The can only be attacked from behind and their body slam attack can pack quite a punch, so be careful. The final kind are Stalfos, a Heartless skeleton breed created by Ganondorf. They can attack using their swords and defend using their shields; however they're no smarter than most Heartless, so go nuts."

"Skeletons, I've never seen one that can hold up to my flames." Bowser sent a fireball after one of the Stalfos and it turned to ash within seconds of being exposed to the fire.

"Alright, Luigi, you and Bowser take out the Stalfos since you both can use fire. Sora and I will fight the Soldiers and Large Bodies," Peach said. She pulled out her parasol and began swiftly slicing through the Heartless, each swipe with her parasol slicing through the Heartless with enormous strength as the hearts floated up and out. Sora followed her example until they ended up in front of a Large Body. Peach ducked under her parasol the moment it went to jump on top of her while Sora rolled out of the way and ended up behind it. He stabbed at Heartless, which turned its attention to him and allowed Peach to get a slice at its back. Sora jumped above the Heartless and slashed at its head, thus taking it down as a heart was released. They turned around to see Luigi and Bowser burn the last Stalfos to ash.

"Hey, how tough is that parasol?" Sora asked.

"Honestly, as curious as I am, that's not a question I want to test. Toadsworth bought it for me to commemorate my one hundredth kidnapping and it works," Peach said.

"Come on, let's go look for Link," Luigi said after walking up to the duo. "The less time we waste here, the better."

"Agreed," Sora said.

-x-

It wasn't long after they left the castle that they ran into the boy. He had to be Link, because who else would be traveling with a fairy and wearing green.

"I'm sorry Link, if I had known you would have had to go inside that thing I would have warned you," the blue fairy by the boy's head said.

"At least I got the Zora Sapphire…even if it means I'm now engaged to Ruto…" Link said.

"Excuse me, Link," Sora walked up to him. Link looked at Sora in confusion. "That is you, right?"

"Yeah, I'm Link, and this is my fairy, Navi," he indicated the blue ball.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sora and these are my friends, Peach, Luigi, Bowser, and Tippi," Sora said. " Zelda sent us to bring you to her when you had the three…I think she called them Spiritual Stones…"

"Zelda sent you?" Link's eyes lit up with surprise.

"She did, come on, we aren't that far from the castle so we should be able to reach her in no time and-"

"Link!" Zelda shouted as she was carried on a horse past the heroes by the man she called Ganondorf.

"Oh no! Zelda!" Link went to run after her and the horse stopped.

"You're her Kokiri boy, aren't you?" Ganondorf sneered. "Well no need to worry, I'm not after the Tri-force yet. I need to deliver the princess here to my employer."

"Let her go!" Sora ran forward and summoned his Keyblade, closely followed by Peach, Luigi and Bowser behind him. Link even pulled out his little sword from his pocket.

"You want a fight that badly then, fine," Ganondorf waved his hand and a large spider Heartless appeared. "Have fun fighting him."

"Tippi/Navi," both Link and Sora said at the same time.

"That's a Golden Skulltulla Heartless. It's a giant bug, and often attacks by tackling its opponent and summoning weaker Skulltullas to do its bidding," both fairy and Pixl provided the information at the same time, causing the heroes to look at each other before grinning.

"Let's do this!" Sora said and started slashing at the legs of the giant spider. His Keyblade's strikes did about as much damage as Link's Kokiri sword did. It fired a spider web at Link, which he raised his shield to block before stabbing upwards at the stomach, which seemed to do more damage. Sora followed his idea and pushed his Keyblade upward into the golden bug's stomach. The others appeared to catch on as Bowser began scratching at it with his claws from underneath along with Peach's parasol stabbing underneath and Luigi's uppercut packing a powerful punch. Little spiders began forming at its feet, distracting them from the larger one.

"We'll keep the little ones busy, you and Link focus on the big one!" Luigi shouted as he sent a green flame at the small bugs on the ground. Peach's parasol effortlessly cut through the small bugs, cutting each one in half and releasing small hearts with each hit. Bowser's flames would burn a dozen for each Heartless his fire breath hit. Sora and Link continued to slice at the stomach of the Heartless. Eventually they were forced out from underneath it as it ran out from under and lowered down to charge at the two heroes, knocking them backwards.

Sora raised his Keyblade and threw it at the Heartless, knocking out four of its legs and causing it to fall over. He ran and climbed on top of the spider, and while Link continually stabbed at its back from below, Sora stabbed his Keyblade into its stomach right above the thorny heart lying on it. The Heartless gave one final shudder before rolling on its back and releasing a giant pink heart.

"Good job!" Luigi gave a thumbs up to Sora.

"Thanks," Sora said and then frowned when he noticed Link looking around in confusion.

"Ganondorf took Zelda…" Link muttered, "but not the Ocarina of Time…why?"

"Probably the same reason our princesses went missing," Peach said. "We actually came from another country that's princesses went missing."

"So we'll just go after him and save Zelda," Sora said and smiled. "Where would Ganondorf take Zelda, do you have any idea…"

"The Gerudo Realm, except that would be..." Link trailed off.

"What's wrong Link?" Navi asked.

"What if he purposely left Castle Town to mislead us…he might have gone to the Temple of Time," Link said.

"Well we go there and demand he return Princess Zelda then!" Bowser said. "Then we find out why he took her and kick his butt."

"I'm game," Luigi said.

"So am I," Sora said.

"I have to admit, it does sound like a good plan…which is surprising coming from Bowser," Tippi said.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go save Zelda!" Link lead the way back to Castle Town.

-x-

"Are you sure you need the girl?" Ganondorf asked.

"The Count says yes, besides, you get the music thingy, lay it outside and the hero will play it so you can get your item," the girl said with a smile.

"Hey! Let Zelda go!" Link ran into the temple. His eyes locked on the girl holding Zelda's now unconscious bodies.

"Sorry, no can do, but your second princess…" the girl smiled. "We'll need her too!" The girl teleported away as Link went to attack her. His sword met empty air.

"Second princess?" Peach echoed in confusion. "Does she mean…me?"

"We'll worry about what she meant after we take out Ganondorf!" Sora summoned his Keyblade.

"You honestly think you'll win?" Ganondorf laughed. "You fools have no idea how powerful I am." He raised his arm and fired a magical spell at Sora, who rolled out of the way as quickly as possible. He ran in with his Keyblade raised to prevent the magic spells from hitting him before slashing down with his Keyblade. Ganondorf turned his attention from Sora to Link and began firing spells at the Kokiri boy. Within minutes, the wooden shield he was using to protect himself was destroyed.

"Look out!" Peach jumped in front of Link and ducked under her parasol to avoid the attack. It did no damage to her and prevented the majority from hitting Link. Using her parasol, she slashed at him once more before pulling out a golf club and hitting him in the face with it. He backed away from her and into Bowser's stream of fire. Without much of a choice, Ganondorf charged up his arm with a dark energy and punched Peach in the face, knocking her backwards and into a wall, out cold.

"Peach!" Sora shouted.

"Sora, look out!" Tippi warned him to roll out of the way of a punch just in time, or else he would have ended up unconscious like Peach.

"Why didn't you say he could do that?" Luigi asked.

"All I scanned was that he can use magic, which considering his opening move was a pretty useless warning," Tippi said with a sigh. Link pulled out a bomb from his bag and threw it at Ganondorf, causing it to explode in his face. Thinking the fire came from Bowser, he started to turn his attacks to the turtle, returning to his former magic strategy. Link started pelting him with small seeds from his slingshot, but it seemed to deal no damage as Ganondorf didn't seem to notice.

"Link! You have to get the Master Sword!" He looked behind him to see Zelda toss him a blue ocarina.

"Zelda? How?" Link asked.

"Link, right now we could use that Master Sword if it will help us beat this guy! We'll hold him off!" Sora shouted and slashed at Ganondorf once again before rolling out of the way of another darkness infused punch.

"Right!" Link pulled out three gems, one blue, one red, and one green and put them all on the platform one at a time. He pulled out the ocarina before playing a song on it, causing a panel in the back of the temple to open revealing a sword on the podium. Link ran to it while Luigi punched Ganondorf in the face. He was hit by a spell not moments later, preventing him from guarding Link's way. Ganondorf ignored both Sora and Bowser as he made his way behind Link, the moment the boy pulled out the Master Sword; the two vanished.

"Link?" Sora asked as he looked for the blond boy and his fairy.

"Golly, you guys really are idiots. The Count has nothing to worry about!" "Zelda" laughed as she transformed into the green skinned girl.

"Count? What are you talking about?" Tippi asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," the girl said and vanished.

"Hey, Peach, wake up!" Bowser roared and Peach sat up moments later with confusion on her face at the missing Link and Ganondorf.

"Where did they go?" Peach asked.

"We don't know," Sora said.

"Did you find out what that girl meant by they were coming after me?" Peach asked.

"No, Sorry Princess," Luigi said.

"That count person she mentioned…" Tippi sighed. "Maybe Mario didn't leave to find the Ansem reports, but instead left find him…"

"We'll have to ask about him when we meet with Leon and the others if they've heard of a count," Sora said. A black keyhole appeared in the air above the three stones, much to the confusion of the others.

"What's that?" Luigi asked.

"Well, it is a keyhole and Sora does wield a Keyblade, so maybe he can lock it," Tippi said. Sora nodded.

"I'll give it a shot," he said. He summoned his Keyblade to his hand and pointed to it at the keyhole, a flash of light went from his Keyblade into it and a click sounded. "I guess that's it…"

"Then we should keep moving, we still have a few more worlds within range of the Starshroom to check out," Luigi said. "This time Sora, you'll be manning the guns, Tippi taught you how to do that, right?"

"Yeah, she did," Sora said.

"Good, Peach, do you want to sit out this time?" Luigi asked.

"I wouldn't mind a bit of time to rest," she said and nodded.

"Great, let's head off to the next world!"


	8. Chapter 7: The Final Smash

"Sora! Aim left!" Luigi shouted as he steered the Starshroom out of the way of a Heartless in the road.

"I'm firing now!" Sora said. He pushed the button as three more Heartless were destroyed.

"What were you guys thinking giving him control over some canons," Bowser said.

"Just because it's not as smooth as the last journey doesn't mean Sora's doing a bad job," Tippi said.

"So where are we going anyways?" Sora asked. Luigi pointed to a giant arena out in the middle of space. "What's there?"

"The smash tournament," Luigi said. "It's an interworld tournament that few are invited too. It can span large quantities of time and space simply to get the competitors. There's normally at least one Link in attendance as well as a Ganondorf and typically a Zelda, but they weren't the ones we met."

"So why are we going then?" Sora asked.

"Where better to seek information on other missing princesses and a mysterious count than a popular fighting tournament that crosses worlds," Peach said. "I sometimes fight in the tournament too, but last year I got disqualified."

"How come?" Sora asked.

"I kind of brought in an extra move with my umbrella, which they disapprove of…" Peach looked away. "I forgot to register it so they sort of disqualified me…"

"Not that it mattered, some creatures from Subspace crashed the party anyways," Luigi said. "All of us worked together to defeat it."

"I was forced into it!" Bowser said.

"So we're gonna go there then?" Sora asked.

"Of course," Peach said and they landed the Starshroom onto the world. Peach stepped out first.

When Sora walked out, he was amazed by the stadium and the seats within. "Wow! This place is huge!"

"Newbie, right?" a boy in red asked as he looked at Sora. "He from your world?" he asked the Mario group.

"No way would he be from out world!" Bowser shouted.

"Bowser, calm," Peach said. She stuck her hand out to prevent him from charging at the boy. "Sora's a new competitor we offered a ride to."

"So what world's he from then?" the boy asked.

"I'm from Destiny Islands!" Sora said.

"Never heard of it," the boy said before walking off.

"Who was he?" Sora asked.

"That's Red. His first tournament was last year," Luigi answered. "He comes from the Kanto League, part of a cluster of worlds that are inhabited by many creatures called Pokemon. We don't know how many there are."

"Hey, quick question, if worlds are meant to be a secret, and I know they are, how does this world exist?" Tippi asked.

"It runs on an invitation based system. Only if you have an invite can you know about other worlds in this case," Peach said and pulled out a sheet of paper with a segmented circle on it. "Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and I all have one."

"I don't…" Sora said. His voice was filled with disappointment.

"We know. You and Tippi need to be out here and talking to the Smashers. If you can find Zelda, Link, or maybe even Samus or Lyn, you should ask them about missing princesses," Luigi said. "We'll use the tournament as a cover to allow us access, otherwise they'd ship us off."

"Oh, so I guess I'll see you guys after you win or lose," Sora said. He waved as they left.

"You really want to be in the battle, don't you?" Tippi asked after they left.

"Wouldn't you? This would be a great place to train if they're all champions!" Sora said. "Now to mention all of the people I'd get to meet."

"Assuming we're all here for a social call?" Sora turned around to see a blonde haired woman in a blue skin tight suit. "I figured they got smarter fighters than that…"

"I don't have an invite, Tippi and I are here for moral support," he said. "I'm Sora."

"Samus Aran, intergalactic bounty hunter," Samus said.

"You've traveled the worlds?" Sora asked.

"Between social calls among the few friends I've made here and missions, yes," she said.

"So do you know about the Heartless, or any mysterious counts?"

"Heartless, they've been around for ten years starting in Radiant Garden. The last person I heard of who was a count was Count Noir of the Tribe of Darkness five years ago who died along with the rest of his people," she said.

"What about their lord?" Tippi asked. A hint of surprise seemed to sound in her voice. "Did he survive?"

"All of the Tribe of Darkness died. Shouldn't that be obvious?" Samus asked and sighed. "I have to go sign up, okay?" With that she left.

"Did you know this Count Noir guy Tippi?" Sora asked.

Tippi hesitated before answering. "I…I don't know…" she said. "Sora, if I were to trust you with something that nobody else knew, would you keep it a secret?"

"Sure," he said.

"I can't remember anything before I became a Pixl. Merlon said it was because his magic in making Pixls was rusty and I'll never get it back… but I think it's because something tampered with my memories before I became one, and every once in a while names and things might trigger a memory or something like that question and then… I wish I knew who I was before this Sora…"

"Well, how about after we find Riku, Kairi, and Mario, I'll help you find your memories?" Sora asked.

"You'd-you'd do that?" Tippi asked in surprise.

"I care about my friends, and you're one of them now," Sora said and smiled. "So it's a promise."

"Yes…a promise…" Tippi said.

"Alright, now let's look-Heartless!" Sora summoned out his Keyblade in a bright flash of light and ran up to two small boys being attacked by the shadows. "You two get out of here!"

"Those are Shadow Heartless, the most basic variety. Even by now they should be no match for your Keyblade," Tippi said. "The slightly larger shadows are called Neo Shadows, and they're a bit more powerful."

"Got it," Sora said and ran at the Shadow Heartless first. His Keyblade slid through each one with very minimal effort, vaporizing a Heartless with each hit into a dark cloud. He stood in front of the first Neo Shadow and watched as it sank into a pool of darkness in the ground. It came up from and went to claw at him, scarcely giving him time to lift his Keyblade up in defense. The claws bounced off the Keyblade and caused the Heartless to bounce back. He rushed up to it again and stabbed it once, and then again before being clawed at and forced back.

"PK Thunder!" The small boys shouted and a small blue orb left them. The first orb hit the Heartless immediately while the second passed through it, causing it damage before turning around and causing the large shadow to dissipate.

"Thanks," Sora said.

"No problem, I'm Ness and this is Lucas. Are you entering the smash tournament this year?"

"I don't know, don't have an invite," Sora said.

"Oh, well, okay then," Ness said. "Come on Lucas."

"So you can fight…" Sora jumped as a glowing blue man who appeared to be made out of data appeared in front of him. "I might have use for you." The man threw a sheet of paper at him.

"Invite: Sora has been invited to the Brawl?" Sora looked at the invite to see it stamped with the same circle as Peach's and Bowser's, along with a heart split up into two segments. "Cool!"

"We shouldn't though, I mean…" Tippi sighed when Sora pouted at her. "Alright, fine, go join the tournament."

"Yeah" Sora ran inside. He walked up to the man running it. "I'd like to enter the Smash tournament."

"Invite?" Sora handed in the paper. "You're in. You're number thirteen. Good luck."

"Yeah!" he walked up to the back room with the invitation in hand and looked at the bulletin board. "It says I'm fighting number 14…"

"How'd you get in?" Peach asked and stared at Sora. "Did you learn anything?"

"Some glowing blue guy gave me an invite," Sora said. Peach froze.

"Sora, that's Tabuu, the person who lead the charge against this world. Be careful," Peach said.

"So what number are you?" he asked.

"Number 13B. It's a team tournament. Luigi's number 13C and Bowser's number 13D," Peach said.

"I'm number thirteen," he said. "So who's number fourteen anyways?"

"Some new guy named Cloud Strife. It said he's from Radiant Garden…" Peach said. "As for 14 B, C, and D, I don't know. It didn't say so they're probably no shows."

"Who wants to bet they were Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf?" Tippi asked. "After all, how could they show?"

"_Will numbers thirteen and fourteen make their way up to the brawl arena at this time!" _

"That's Master Hand, the ruler of this world. We're up," Peach said. "Come on!"

"Right!" Sora ran after Peach to meet with Luigi and Bowser.

"What's he doing here?" Bowser asked.

"He's number thirteen," Peach said. "So we'll be Team Sora rather than Team Peach."

"You got an invite, awesome!" Luigi gave Sora a thumbs up just as they arrived in the center of the field. Standing on the other side was a blond with spiky hair, no sign of any of his partners.

"Now introducing numbers thirteen and fourteen. As the rest of number fourteen has been declared no shows, number thirteen will be going it alone!"

"Good luck Sora," Peach said before pushing him out.

"I get to fight some kid…" the man stared at Sora.

"_Competitors Sora from Destiny Islands and Cloud Strife from Radiant Garden, you have five minutes to knock your opponent off the edge. If they are not knocked off within twenty minutes, a coin will be flipped to determine the winner. You may begin."_

"So they want me to fight a kid…" Cloud looked at Sora with disappointment. "Piece of cake."

"Hey!" Sora glared and summoned out his key.

"So you're the key…"Cloud said. "Still won't make this harder." He ran out Sora while pulling out a giant sword. The sword slashed at him, giving Sora no time to lift his defense and causing him to nearly fall off the edge almost instantly. Sora threw his Keyblade at Cloud only for the older warrior to run around it effortlessly. Sora took advantage of the distraction and ran forward, summoning his Keyblade back at the last second to deal a bit of damage. He took it like Leon did as though Sora had dealt know damage at all. This time Cloud picked up his sword and began slashing at him nonstop. Sora ducked and rolled to avoid it, but several attacks still hit. At this rate, he would collapse from wounds as opposed to falling off the edge. He lifted up his Keyblade to intercept another strike. The clang of metal on metal resounded throughout the entire stadium and Sora pushed back harder in an attempt to stop Cloud's onslaught. The large sword was pushed out of Cloud's hands.

Cloud attempted to run after his sword and pick it up, but Sora didn't let him. Now on the offensive, he charged at the blond warrior and struck at him with his Keyblade before making a stabbing motion, the blunt edge hit the side of Cloud's shoulder, causing him to grab it. Sora hit him again before Cloud pushed back with his hands and ran to pick up his sword, the slightly wounded shoulder made the sword strike slower than before, but not enough to help Sora defend. He lifted up to block strike after strike, still not protecting him well enough as attacks continued to hit. It wasn't long before his feet hit the edge of the platform once more. In a last ditch effort, he rolled to the side as Cloud struck. Cloud continued the motion and with a little push from Sora, he fell off the edge.

"Yeah! I did it! See, that's the power of the Keyblade!" Sora looked down for Cloud.

"Good fight," Cloud nodded to him and walked past.

"You think you can lose Cloud!" A voice shouted as the blue man, Tabuu appeared in the field.

"You said fight the key to find where he was. You said nothing about me actually winning," Cloud said.

"That will have to change," Tabbu said. He raised his hand as a large creature appeared in the center of the battlefield. It was purple and covered in armor, little black particles seemed to pour out from its back. "New rules! Team number 13 must now defeat my Subspace monster!" Tabuu teleported away.

"He entered me to kill me?" Sora asked.

"Cloud, get out of here!" Peach shouted. "We can take him out!"

"Right…" Cloud looked at her with doubt, but in his condition it wasn't really like he could do much fighting anyways.

"Let's go!" Sora ran up to the large creature, but stopped short as it twirled in the air, barely missing him by an inch.

"That's Golem. He's one of many soldiers in Tabuu's army, the Subspace Enemy. He's big and bulky, and most of his attacks can be devastating if they manage to land a hit, so be careful," Tippi said.

"Did you fight him last time Peach?" Luigi asked.

"It was Mario's turn inside the maze," Peach said and shook her head. "Oh well, more fun when you don't know what you're doing." She ran up to Golem and slashed at him with her parasol, ducking under it just as he stomped his foot to crush her. The ground around her shattered, but her and her parasol remained unscathed as she once more ran after him not moments later before hitting him again. Luigi ran up to Golem and headbutted him, which seemed to do a fair amount of damage as a small crack in Golem's armor appeared. Unfortunately he was unable to avoid the next spin attack in time and was knocked back several feet. Bowser grabbed him shortly before he hit the wall of the smash arena.

"Hey! Watch it!" Bowser shouted. "We have no time for injuries!" He opened his jaw and let loose a stream of fire at Golem, causing him to step back to avoid the flames. Sora, standing behind Golem, stabbed at the Subspace warrior with his Keyblade in the back just as Golem jumped. Golem landed on Bowser and Peach, effectively crushing them. Luigi looked back in surprise to see them stand up after removing themselves from the ground.

"We're okay! Take him out!" Peach shouted before reaching into a pocket and throwing an orb with the Smash Symbol out onto the field. Luigi ran for it, but it collided with Sora's Keyblade seconds before the younger Mario brother could grab it. A rainbow aura surrounded Sora and his eyes began to glow.

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

"Use it!" Peach shouted. "Just concentrate and it will activate!"

"Um…okay?" The rainbow aura suddenly discharged. Sora lifted his Keyblade high into the air and five successive beams of white light shot down, hitting Golem several times before the Subspace monster dissolved into many particles. "Did…did I do that?"

"_The Final Smash unlocks the user's potential,"_ Master Hand's voice said. _"So long as you promise to seal the Keyhole on my world, you are welcome to use it off of this world. All four of you may use it in your search for your friends and quest to save the world."_

"So can you tell us where the Keyhole is?" Sora asked.

"_I trust you'll be able to find it Keyblade Master…"_

"Wow? Did Master Hand just talk to you…personally?" Peach's voice couldn't hide her surprise. "Sora, he never does that! Always just taunts or laughs or orders, you had a conversation with him."

"I guess sealing this world's Keyhole is really that important," Sora said and smiled. "Should we find it."

"I don't think we have to look hard…" Luigi indicated the trophy for the winner. A black Keyhole formed on the top. A beam of light shot out of Sora's Keyblade, effectively sealing it.

"We must hurry to the next world then to continue our search," Tippi said.

"Right, I'm-" Sora stopped as he saw Cloud. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Cloud said.

"So why did you go along with him anyways?" Sora asked. He had to know why Cloud had so willingly worked with Tabuu.

"I'm looking for someone," Cloud said. "Tabuu promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired. I fell into darkness and couldn't find the light." He stood up and went to walk away.

"You'll find it. I'm searching too," Sora said. That seemed to catch Cloud's attention.

"For your light?" he asked. "Don't lose sight of it."

"So how about a rematch sometime, no dark powers allowed?" Sora asked.

"I think I'll pass," Cloud said and continued his walk to the Smash World's exit.

"Well…that was a bit rude…" Peach said.

"Nah, it's okay!" Sora smiled. "We should leave anyways, I still have Riku and Kairi to find."

"And Mario," Luigi said. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, and Mario too!"


	9. Chapter 8: When Geeks Attack

"Hey! This world reminds me of the good old days!" Luigi said. The world they had landed on was fully pixilated, with green grasses and bushes.

"Those days weren't good. I was being beaten up by your stupid brother every other week!" Bowser growled.

"This place does have a nostalgic feel, almost as if it were a throwback to simpler times," Peach said.

"I don't get it," Sora said.

"It's an older generation thing, I don't quite understand the nostalgia either," Tippi said.

Sora nodded in understanding. "If we're done feeling nostalgic, maybe we should look for Riku and Kairi here."

"Well, I do sense an odd presence here, perhaps-" whatever Tippi was about to say was interrupted as a large pink tongue grabbed her. She screamed.

"Tippi!" Sora shouted.

A laugh sounded as a chameleon with a tacky yellow shirt and glasses appeared in front of them. "I finally managed to catch myself a butterfly! All of my friends on will be so jealous!" The chameleon ran away with Tippi before the heroes could do anything to stop him.

"Come on, we have to help her!" Sora said and began to run after the chameleon.

"Sora, wait." Peach reached her hand out to stop him. "We don't know where we're going and-"

"Tippi might be in danger," he said as an explanation.

"Yeah, but…" Bowser looked away. "I don't really want to say this, but Tippi isn't a priority, and the odd presence wasn't the people we are looking for. So we don't really need to stay, right now, unfortunately, that stupid plumber is more important than her."

"No, we've got to help," Sora said. "We can't abandon her, she's our friend."

"If you need help finding Francis's castle, perhaps I can help," a boy said. His blue hair was spiked out in all directions, much like Sora's.

"You know the chameleon?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, he attacks every tiny thing in the Bitlands. He attacked me for being…I think he said something about me being a bishounen or something…" the boy seemed to mutter at the last part. "You can only get to his castle by crossing the Tile Pool. I wouldn't recommend going, but…your friend will be pretty miserable if you don't go. You could also clear out some of the scary monsters there."

"Scary monsters…how much do you want to bet those are the Heartless," Sora said.

"Do you mind helping us out?" Peach asked.

"I would, but I'm a bit…um…nervous around the crazy guy…good luck though…" the boy disappeared into one of the nearby bushes.

"So it's settled then, we help Tippi to find the Heartless around that area," Sora said.

"Fine," Bowser said. Peach and Luigi just nodded.

-x-

"So this is the Tile Pool, huh?" Sora asked. "Anybody have a boat?"

"I'm afraid not," Peach said and sighed. "We'll have to swim across the entire pool."

"We'll drown then…" Sora said. He put his foot in the water anyways, only to find it was slightly strange. Not quite water, but not quite air. Tentatively, he stepped in another few steps. It was cold around him and felt wet; however, unlike the oceans on his island, he was able to breathe when he inhaled the water. It was a strange sensation, not quite drowning under water, and he popped up above the surface of the water. "Hey guys, you can breathe down here!"

"Really?" Luigi jumped in and didn't reemerge from the water. Bowser just stared while a shocked and worried expression appeared on Peach's face.

"Luigi!"

"Don't worry princess, I'm right here!" the green clad plumber emerged moments later. "Sora's right, you can breathe under water, so it's just a straight walk to the castle on the other side of the pool of water."

"Alright then…" Peach submerged and popped up a few minutes later. "Come on Bowser. We have to keep moving if we don't want to waste too much time on this world."

"Alright…fine!" Bowser said and jumped into the water. A look of shock emerged on his face as he too found that he could breathe under the water. "What are we waiting for, let's get moving all ready!"

"Okay," Sora went to take another step as a giant white tentacle emerged from the ground in front of him. Just beside the area of sea floor, a giant squid like creature emerged from the chasm beside them.

"Bloop! Bloop!" the creature said.

"A Blooper? We must be in an area similar to Mushroom Kingdom," Luigi said. He looked up at the Blooper. "Blooper, we don't wish to fight, we simply wish to pass through your home."

"Bloop?" the Blooper said. It appeared to understand Luigi and was asking why they wanted to enter the Tile Pool in the first place rather than fight.

"We're trying to save a friend," Sora explained. "Our friend Tippi was taken from us and the person who took her lives on the other side of the Tile Pool. His name is Francis and-"

The Blooper got mad as it turned a slightly red color and raised a tentacle to block the path behind them. "Bloop!" it said and used one of its blue tentacles to slash at the four. They all tried to frantically swim away from the tentacle, but Bowser, being the slowest, was hit by the massive blue suctioned cup tentacle. In return, he blasted it with fire that magically worked under water causing the Blooper to recall its tentacle, however it hardly seemed to react or was even fazed by the attack, simply lifting up another tentacle to replace the first one and swiping at Sora, knocking the Keyblade Wielder back and barely giving him time to retaliate before the tentacle went below. Peach and Luigi underwent the same treatment, and Bowser even tried to attack the yellow ones blocking them in, but nothing seemed to harm the Blooper at all.

"How is this thing beating me?" Bowser growled before slashing at another tentacle with his claws before ducking into his shell to avoid taking damage from the hit. Peach slashed the new tentacle with her parasol before Bowser could emerge, however when the parasol made contact with the tentacle, the Blooper cried out in pain.

"How did you do that?" Sora asked.

Peach looked at the retreating tentacle to notice something different. It had red suction cups rather than blue or yellow. "Aim for the red tentacle! It's the vulnerable one!"

Sora slashed through another tentacle before nodding. He didn't realize until now how much he missed Tippi and her scans. They made most fights against any creature a whole lot easier. He slashed through another tentacle before lowering his Keyblade to protect from an attack from below. He lifted up his Keyblade and threw it at an oncoming tentacle. When the Keyblade made contact, another scream of pain emerged from the Blooper. He launched another attack at the Blooper, but this one caused the Blooper to not feel any pain. Bowser meanwhile seemed lucky enough to get the red tentacle as his claws ripped into the tentacle in front of him, the Blooper let out another shriek of pain. As the tentacle retreated, Sora landed another blow by striking at the tentacle for a second time as it reseeded. Luigi charged at the tentacle nearby him for it to disappear below and the red one to appear thirty seconds later. He punched it with his fist before the Blooper could cry out in pain again, it fled.

"Great job, now we need to finish getting through this place so we can leave," Bowser said and shook his head in disgust.

"What's Bowser's problem?" Sora asked.

"It's this world. It brings back a nostalgic feel for Luigi, Bowser, and me, and Bowser always lost," Peach said. "Not to mention he really doesn't like water that much since he fights with fire. You know, Bowser must really care and respect you if he's willing to endure the equivalent of torturous memories in order to save a friend who you've become especially close to."

"So he doesn't show that he cares well?" Sora asked.

"He thinks kidnapping me every other week is going to make me his friend and fall in love with him." Peach sighed. "He does know it won't work I think, he just can't express it any other way."

-x-

"Dry land! Finally!" Bowser emerged from the Tile Pool and stared at the large white castle in front of their eyes. "Oh come on! Why does the giant nerd get such a nice big white castle?"

"Don't worry Bowser, your castle is still nicer," Peach said and smiled. "Now come on, we should enter, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah, Tippi's in-Kairi?" Sora asked as he locked eyes on the red haired girl walk around the side of the castle. "Kairi!"

"Kairi, isn't that one of your friends?" Luigi asked. Sora

"She's right over there!" He ran around the side of the castle to see Kairi missing. He sighed in frustration and picked up a sheet of paper lying on the ground. On it was a picture of a strange castle. He looked at it in confusion. He swore he'd seen it before. "Hey, guys, have you seen this?" he asked the others.

"I haven't," Peach said.

"I haven't either," Luigi said.

"Nope," Bowser said.

Sora sighed. "I guess it's just a weird feeling. We should go inside."

"What about Kairi? Didn't you say she was here?"

"It was probably just my imagination," Sora said. He faked a smile before walking back to the main gate of the castle and pushing it open. When they entered, they were greeted with a horrifying sight. Cat robots in maid outfits were all over the place, among various other merchandise for animes, mangas, and comic books.

"Oh my…" Peach said. She was unsure of how to react in this geek's home. Thankfully, various Heartless appeared to distract them. Most of them were of the Shadow and Soldier variety, but a few were vaguely reminiscent of the cat robots and would fire smaller exploding Heartless out of its mouth. Sora was able to slice through most of the Shadows while Peach took out the Soldiers. Luigi's and Bowser's fire set the little bombs on fire as they left the cat Heartless's mouth, causing them to explode and take out the Heartless and with little effort.

"Alright, let's find what's bringing in these Heartless," Luigi said. "I bet it's that chameleon." He tried to pull open the door. The moment he did, the eyes on the large cat like door opened up.

"Meow! Only Master Francis and totally hot babes allowed in, activating Kitty Lasers." Two red beams emerged from the eyes of the door, chasing them back outside before they could continue their search.

"This stinks! How do we get in?" Bowser growled.

"We don't get in…" Luigi said and looked to Peach and Sora. "Not when we have a beautiful princess and a kid who looks like he walked out of an anime."

"No way!" Both Sora and Peach shouted at the same time.

"Then I guess you won't be saving Tippi then," Luigi said. Peach sighed.

"Fine, I'll go in, but if something happens, send Sora in after me," she walked into the castle's entrance chamber and up to the cat door, Sora hiding behind a column and watching her every move.

" Meow! Totally hot babe detected! Must check compatibility with Master Francis. Answer the following questions. Video games and hot babes are totally hi-technicaaaaal!"

"Uhh, True?" Peach guessed. She had no idea what the point of the question was, but she figured if she answered true to everything, she would have to get it right at some point.

"If it's limited edition, buy it!"

"Yes?"

"I have bought games that I have never played."

"True…"

"If it's got fierce giant robot on giant robot combat, it's an insta-buy!"

"True?"

"They're not dolls. They're action figures. With real fire punching action."

"True?"

"I have dumped a friend over an argument about 'Starship X-Naut' propulson technology."

"Why would you-it's for Tippi, true."

"A schweet cover illustration is way more important than the story line."

"True."

"Never pull the top copy from a pile of comics! Find the mint-condition one!"

"True."

"My first love was an anime character!"

"True." _This guy is a lunatic,_ she thought.

"I love going on message boards and complaining about games I've never played!"

"True." The moment she answered that last question, the door opened, revealing the chameleon with a camera held in his hand.

"Who are you?" the chameleon asked. "How did you get in my room, haven't you ever heard of privacy?"

"You, there you are! Tell me-"

"Wait a second, were you actually looking for me?" the chameleon asked. "You were? Oh my Grambi! A totally hot babe wants to talk to me!"

"I didn't-"

"Ahh! Must activate Nerr2babe right away!" the chameleon pulled out his laptop computer and started to run some form of program.

"But I-"

"So, my name is Francis, what's yours?" Francis asked.

"I'm not answering anything you ask," Peach said.

"What, ah, such sass! You're fantastic!" Francis said. Peach could only stare. Had the nerdy chameleon ever even met a real girl before? "Tell me, what animes do you watch?"

"Um…I don't-"

"I know, it's so hard to decide between animes," Francis said. "They're all so-"

"Will you shut up?" Peach asked. "I am not an otaku who spends their life locked inside their home on their computer. All I want is for you to tell me where Tippi is.

"Tippi, what's a Tippi?"

"You-ugh," Peach tried to hold in her groan.

"Peach? Is that you?" a voice asked. Peach looked behind Francis to see Tippi trapped in a cage. "You guys came for me?"

"You came for her?" Francis growled. "Well you can't take my Francine!"

"Francine," Peach said. Her face fell into a narrow line. "Sora, now!"

"Peach," Sora ran in with his Keyblade out and Francis gained a starstruck look on his face.

"It's an anime hero!" The chameleon exclaimed.

"Uh, no! Now let go of Peach and Tippi," Sora said.

"No way!" Francis stuck his tongue out in an attempt to grab Peach and Sora in it, however a single strike of the Keyblade on his tongue seemed to shock Francis. "How about you face my Heartless friend then!" No Heartless appeared to fight them. Francis seemed to wait in anticipation for something to happen.

"Um…okay?" Sora ran over to the cage and lifted it up while the chameleon was distracted. Tippi fluttered up.

"Sora…Peach…thank you," Tippi said.

"No problem, what are friends for?" Sora smiled.

"Friends, we're friends," she said. "We should go now before that Heartless shows up."

"I agree," Peach said. As they went to exit, Bowser and Luigi ran in. "What are you two-"

"Run!" Luigi shouted. None of them could see what was attacking them.

"There's a Heartless there," Tippi said. "Allow me to make it visible." A gray chameleon appeared not moments later. "That's a Void Lizard. They tend to run and hide rather than actually fight, however they can be a reasonable challenge, so it's best to be prepared. You'll have to defeat both Francis and it in order to leave I bet."

"In that case, Peach and I now have a reason to fight Francis," Sora said. "Luigi, Bowser, you take the Void Lizard."

"Gotcha!" Luigi said.

Sora now turned towards the green geeky chameleon. He summoned his Keyblade in a flash of light and lifted it up to block an attack from his tongue that tried to grab Sora. His Keyblade was stuck to Francis's tongue; however he quickly summoned it back to his hand and managed to slash at Francis once before he disappeared. Peach backed up to Sora. "Look for disturbances," she said. "I bet that's where he'll be hiding." She rushed forward at what appeared to be nothing to Sora and attacked at the air with her frying pan. Francis appeared moments later and stuck his tongue out at Peach. She leaped over the tongue before landing on his head and holding onto him. Sora stabbed at Francis toward the top of his head with the Keyblade, unfortunately nearly knocking Peach off in the process. She lost her grip on his head and fell off, but not before pulling out a golf club and hitting him once more. Sora threw his Keyblade just before Francis disappeared, dealing slightly more damage. The two once more found themselves meeting with their backs to each other. This time, when she noticed the disturbance, Peach pushed Sora in the direction of Francis. His Keyblade pointed out in front of him managed to cause further damage Francis, knocking him unconscious.

Luigi turned toward the Void Lizard and watched as it vanished once more from their sight. The battle had barely started, but already the foe had turned itself invisible to avoid any attacks. Two large beams of light fired at Luigi and Bowser from the eyes. Luigi ran out of the way while Bowser ducked into his shell. When the shell was hit, it bounced into a wall before bouncing back and managing to hit the Heartless. The Heartless charged at the two with its tongue, but Luigi and Bowser both managed to avoid the tongue by rushing to either side before they both got in close to punch and claw. Before they could hit it again, a bright light flashed and Sora's Keyblade stabbed through the lizard, causing it to leave behind a pink crystal heart.

"We should get going before he wakes up," Peach said. The other three nodded.

"I definitely don't want to deal with him," Sora said in agreement.

"What about the Keyhole to this world. You have to seal it before we go so we'll never have to return," Tippi said.

"If you know where it is then show us," Bowser said.

"It's more of a feeling…but…" Tippi pointed at the area where her cage had sat on the table. A small green heart was imprinted on it. As Sora approached, a bright ray of light appeared from the tip of his Keyblade and the Keyhole appeared. This time however, a small golden star appeared from beneath it.

"A power star…" Peach gasped. "Mario was here!"

"Well not anymore," Luigi said. "But we should take this to Traverse Town. Maybe somebody there can install it in the Starshroom."

"Yeah, let's go!" Sora said.

-x-

"Yeah, um, Count? The Keyblade Wielder has managed to seal three Keyholes," the woman said.

"Interesting, mused Count Bleck," the creature said.

"So tell me, what's the plan?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, do we finally get to fight those icky heroes?" the girl asked.

"Yes. When Count Bleck goes to Traverse Town with the boy, O'Chunks will accompany him."

"Really Count? I get ta fight the 'eroes firs'?" the man asked. "I'll make sure they be cryin' for their Maddy when I'm through with 'em."

"That would be Mommy O'Chunks," the jester corrected. "You have brains like that of the dinosaurs that went extinct thousands of years ago. Perhaps you are dumber than Mimi."

"Hey! I completed the Count's mission," the girl said.

"Speaking of the girl, Nastasia, when I return have her ready."

"Yes Count," the woman said. The creature and man vanished, probably to get the one they were taking to Traverse Town.


	10. Chapter 9: An Old Friend

"So, you saved another world?" Leon asked as Sora, Luigi, Bowser, and Peach walked in through the Traverse Town gates.

"Yeah, we did," Sora said.

"Tell me, did a Keyhole appear?" Leon asked.

"Yeah," Sora said. "The Keyblade locked it as soon as it appeared."

"How did you know about them?" Peach asked.

"Well, every world out there has a Keyhole, probably this one too…" Aerith said.

"What do you mean? Is this how we'll save all the worlds?" Sora asked. Excitement edged into his voice that what happened on his islands had already been prevented on a handful of worlds.

"I can't say for sure, just that it was in Ansem's Report," Aerith said.

"So what do the Heartless do in the Keyhole anyways that allows them to destroy the world?" Sora asked.

"They enter in through it and somehow do something to the core of the world to destroy it. We'll need more of those reports to be sure of what they do," Leon said. "The Keyblade is the only thing that can seal it."

"Which must be why Mario sent us to find Sora…" Peach realized.

"So we'll just travel the worlds and keep an extra good eye on Sora, right?" Tippi asked. "That way we can make sure the worlds stay safe."

"So do you know anybody who can install Power Stars into the Starshroom?" Luigi asked.

"You can try Cid. He might know something," Leon said.

"Huh, okay," Sora said. "Thanks for letting us know!"

The group began to walk off towards the shop Sora had first entered. "Hey Cid!"

"Kid, I see you found some friends to travel with," Cid said.

"Yeah, and we were hoping you could install a power star into the Starshroom for us," Peach said. "If you don't mind that is."

"I'll do it, just give me a bit of time first," Cid said. "Oh, by the way, some guy was asking for you and a person named Tippi. He said to send him your way if you came in to stop by."

"Really?" Tippi asked. "I suppose we should go visit them. Where are they staying?"

"A house in the back of Traverse Town's third district," Cid said. "You won't be able to miss it."

"Alright, we'll go visit, thanks for all the help!" Sora said.

"Don't mention it, and you might want to check out the Gizmo Shop too, it's been doing some weird stuff."

"Alright," Sora said. "Come on guys, let's go!"

-x-

"This is the house, right?" Peach asked and indicated the dark house in front of them.

"I think so…" Sora said. "You don't see any others, right?"

"I don't…" Tippi said. "We should go in." The three and Tippi went in. Sora went to follow, but stopped when he heard a voice.

"There's something about this musty place…" Sora turned around in surprise to see Kairi. She walked passed him. "It reminds me of the secret place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls. Remember?"

"Kairi?" Sora asked. She couldn't have been here too; she was just in the Bitlands not too long ago. There was no way she could have been here now.

"Sora, are you okay?" Peach asked. He blinked, and as suddenly as Kairi had appeared, she'd vanished.

"I must be seeing things…" he mumbled. He walked inside after the others and smiled. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"That's good. Unfortunately our visitor isn't here," Tippi said.

"I'm afraid you're wrong Tippi dear. I'm in the back, oh ho ho!" A voice said. Moments later a man with a blue cloak emerged. The cloak shrouded his entire face in darkness, the only thing visible were two yellow eyes and a white beard. Tippi gasped.

"What's wrong? Is it a kind of Heartless?" Sora asked.

"Sora, that's no Heartless! That's Merlon!" Tippi said.

"It's cool to finally meet you Merlon!" Luigi said.

"The pleasure is all mine, heroes," Merlon said. "Come, we have much to discuss."

"So what do you want to talk about then? Tell us already!" Bowser shouted.

"I wish to tell you about the reason the world is about to be destroyed," Merlon said. "And teach Sora a thing or two."

"You know our names?" Sora asked.

"They were written in the Light Prognosticus, had I decoded them earlier, I could have searched you out much quicker," Merlon said. "Now, have any of you heard of the Light Prognosticus, besides Tippi of course?" Nobody raised their hands or said anything. "Very well, I will start from the beginning.

"The Light Prognosticus was created fifteen hundred years ago by my ancestors in the Tribe of Ancients. It was created to go against a dark book, the Dark Prognosticus. The dark book was said to have the secrets to gaining an ancient power, but one often lost their sanity when looking within the pages. The book predicted one day, a member from the ancient's sister tribe, the Tribe of Darkness, would come and bring ruin in their quest for ultimate power, the power of Kingdom Hearts. Four heroes will come and return him to light, the key, a ferocious monster, a man in green, and a woman of unknown importance. I currently deciphered three of the names within the Light Prognosticus about these heroes, yours, Bowser's, and Luigi's. The woman's name still remains shrouded in mystery, but I believe she is the princess."

"So what can you tell us about the Prognosticus's wielder?" Peach asked.

"Only that to risk opening the book, he was desperate with no brighter option," Merlon said. "Unfortunately, I know little else at this time. But now, Sora, it's time for you to learn magic."

"Me?" Sora asked.

"As the Keyblade's owner, it's important you learn to fight against the enemies in more ways than just hitting them with the Keyblade. I will teach you the basics, it will be up to you to learn the rest."

"Go for it!" Peach said. "You could become such a better fighter."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot!" Sora said. A dummy emerged from the floor moments later.

"I want you to set it on fire," Merlon said as he looked at Sora's blank expression. "There are many different ways to channel the elements, but some work better than others. You should try to focus on the warmth and flame of a fire, summon that feeling inside of you. When it fills you up, release the flames on the target, and a fireball should hit it."

_"Concentrate on the warmth. You'll eventually get the flame to light…"_

Tippi looked around for the source of the mysterious voice. If she hadn't known any better, she might have thought it sounded familiar, and caring. She turned back to Sora after a moment to watch him master the spell. It took several minutes of concentration, but an orange fireball emerged from the tip of Sora's Keyblade. "Excellent. You've learned fire," Merlon said. "Now it's time to learn ice."

-x-

Twenty minutes and five spells later (fire, ice, lightning, wind, and health, known as Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Aero, and Cure respectively), Sora and the others exited the house of Merlon back to the third district.

"If you can learn magic that quickly, then we'll be saving the worlds even faster," Luigi said as they walked.

"Yeah!" Sora said. He looked to Tippi. "Hey, is everything alright Tippi?"

"I'm fine…I…did any of you hear something besides Merlon when Sora was learning magic, like a voice?" Tippi asked.

"No…" Sora shook his head. The others did as well. "Sorry."

"It must be like when you thought you saw Kairi in Bitlands," Tippi said. "We're just both…a little stressed I suppo-Heartless!" No sooner than Tippi had shouted her warning about the Shadows surrounding them did a dark sword shaped like a bat's wing slashed through each one, taking them down as quickly as possible.

"There you are. What's going on?" Sora would recognize that voice anywhere. It was his best friend's after all.

"Riku!" Sora shouted. He ran up to Riku and started stretching his mouth.

"Hey, hey," he slapped away Sora's hand, "cut it out."

"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" Sora asked.

"I hope not. Took forever to find you," Riku said.

"Riku!" He smiled. A moment later, Sora realized there was a lack of a familiar red head he'd been seeing everywhere he went. "Wait a second, where's Kairi?"

"Isn't she with you?" Riku watched as Sora's face fell in disappointment. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too. We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now." A Heartless formed in the middle of Riku's statement. "We'll all be together again soon. Just leave everything to me, I know this-" he was interrupted as Sora burst through, Keyblade in hand, and destroyed the Heartless in one blow.

"Leave it to who?" Sora asked. His voice filled with pride at the idea that he was able to even slightly show up his old friend.

"Sora, what did you-"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi, too, with their help," Sora said.

"Who are they?" Riku asked.

"My name's Tippi. It's nice to meet you," Tippi said. "These are Princess Peach, Luigi, and B-"

"We visited so many places and worlds," Sora's eyes were lit up with excitement while Riku's filled with jealousy, "looking for you."

"Really, well, what do you know?" bitterness and resentment seemed to seep into his voice. "I never would have guessed."

"Sora's a Keyblade Master too!" Luigi said.

"It was pretty shocking when we first met him, but it's very believable now," Peach said. "He's become such a great fighter now."

"What's that mean?" Sora asked.

"So this is called a Keyblade." While Sora wasn't looking, Riku must have taken it from his hands. He examined it with minor interest.

"Huh? Hey, give it back," Sora said.

Riku looked at Sora nervously for a moment; he backed away before tossing the Keyblade. "Catch!"

"Okay, so you're coming with us, right?" Sora asked. "We've got this awesome rocket, wait 'till you see it!"

"No, he can't come!" Bowser said and crossed his arms.

"What?" Sora asked.

"Forget it!" Bowser insisted.

"Oh come on, he's Sora's friend. Please Bowser?" Peach asked.

"He's gone," Tippi said. This attracted all three of their attentions.

"Riku?" Sora asked. No response came. "Nice going."

"Sora, it's okay," Tippi said. "I mean, at least he's safe, right?"

"Right, and maybe we'll run into Kairi soon too!" Sora said. They walked around the third district to find a small house that had been locked before.

"Let's go in," Peach said and opened the door. Leon, Cid, Aerith, and Yuffie were inside the blue walls of the inside of the house.

"Hey guys," Sora said.

"You visited that strange guy, right?" Cid asked.

"We did visit, and I learned some magic," Sora said with pride.

"Good. You're going to need it as you continue this journey," Leon said.

"What do you mean he'll need it? Sora's been proving himself just fine on this journey." Luigi defended Sora, which considering how not ten minutes ago he had been mocked by the trio from Mushroom Kingdom to Riku was interesting.

"It's…you've heard of the dark sorcerer Count Bleck, haven't you?" Aerith asked. The four shook their heads.

"I'm afraid we haven't. Is he bad?" Tippi asked.

"Bad. He's allied with the Heartless," Leon explained. "When our home was destroyed, he had a hand in it. Don't take him lightly."

"We won't," Luigi said.

"We think Count Bleck has most of the pages to Ansem's report," Cid added. "Anyways, the Power Star's been added, so you guys are all set to go."

"Really, took you long enough." Bowser growled. The others glared.

"We've been busy too!" Peach said. "Cid was doing us a favor, so be happy he helped us at all."

"Right, you all remember the bell that rang earlier, right?" Aerith asked.

"Of course," Sora said.

"There's an old legend associated with it, and perhaps you might find something there," Leon said. "It wouldn't hurt to check it out before you leave."

"Okay, we can look!" Sora said. The heroes proceeded to leave the house.

-x-

"How could he just do that?" Riku asked. His voice was filled with anger and betrayal as he watched Sora talk with the others. "How can he abandon Kairi and I like that."

"Count Bleck is truly sorry the Keyblade Master has done this," a blue skinned creature said. He wore a while top hat and cloak, and his eyes glowed red. He had hands, but no arms, legs, or feet. "He did not anticipate that your company would not be welcome."

"Yeah, well, you were right count. He obviously doesn't care anymore."

"Count Bleck's offer of joining his minions still stands. If you would like it you may have a standing among us," Count Bleck said.

"I-" Riku sighed. "I'll join if you'll help me find Kairi."

"Count Bleck promises his unending aid."Count Bleck lowered the brim of his hat over his face to avoid Riku's face. "I don't want to see another soul go through the pain of losing the only thing that matters…"

-x-

"So what do you guys think happens when we ring the bell anyways?" Sora asked.

"Probably we get loads of treasure." Bowser laughed with excitement at the thought of a few hundred gold coins falling from the sky and into their laps.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Tippi said. Sora hit the bell with his Keyblade and a loud clang resided. Besides that, nothing happened.

"Rip-off!" Bowser growled.

"Maybe it's just broken," Peach said.

"Or you just have to hit it more than once. My bro always says that most fights take hits in multiples of three, so maybe this bell requires three hits," Luigi said.

"Worth a shot." Sora hit the bell another two times with his Keyblade. Each time, a loud clang emerged from its depths. But on the third time, a glow emerged on the other side of the second district. The fountain background turned around twice, revealing a Keyhole.

"Come on! Let's seal it now!" Peach said. They jumped off the roof and onto the ground to begin running towards the Keyhole when a bulky figure landed in front of them. The figure was pale with a brown beard and bald head.

"Yeh aren't takin' another step closer," the figure said.

"We need to seal that if we're going to stop the Heartless. You might not realize this, but we're the heroes," Tippi said.

"I know exactly who yeh are! Yeh're the 'eroes who want to stop the Count and 'is goal. Whoever wants to defeat the Count 'as to go through me, O'Chunks."

"O what?" Sora asked.

"I think this oaf is one of Count Bleck's minions…" Tippi said. "You'd think he'd be able to get better."

" 'ey! Watch what yeh say 'bout the Count! 'e is one of the greatest counts out there and I'm 'is 'ighest quality minion."

"I'd hate to see what the other minions are like then…" Luigi said. "But get out of the way! We don't have time for this anyways."

"I don' plan on movin' from this spot," O'Chunks said.

"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" Sora summoned his Keyblade and ran to hit the giant oaf with it. O'Chunks grabbed the Keyblade and threw Sora away before striking a victory pose. While he was still in his pose, Bowser used his fire breath on O'Chunks. He then proceeded to use his claws before the koopa king two was thrown back. He ducked into his shell as Peach pulled out her parasol and hit him back towards O'Chunks. The shell hit the minion and knocked him backwards several feet. Luigi ran up to him and performed a super jump before landing on O'Chunks's head. He punched him in the face as soon as he landed. The enraged minion proceeded to charge after the three, causing them to jump out of the way before Sora struck him from behind with his Keyblade. The Keyblade was promptly knocked from Sora's hand and reappeared in a bright flash of light. Seeing that close combat wouldn't work in this situation, Sora lifted up his Keyblade and a ball of ice formed at the top. "Freeze!" Five snowflakes left the Keyblade's top, the center one hitting O'Chunks and knocking him into another round of Bowser's flames.

"Argh! I give! I give!" O'Chunks shouted. "Yeh've bested me this time, 'eroes, but next time yeh won't be so lucky…eh…whate'er yer name was again."

"His name's Sora," Tippi said.

"Right, well, Sora, next time yeh won't get so lucky. Chunks away!" In a flash the man was gone, leaving Sora standing in front of the now unguarded Keyhole.

"Quick, seal it." A bright light flashed out of the Keyblade and a click sounded before the Keyhole was now sealed.

"You know, what if the count that took Zelda away and sent the green girl was Count Bleck?" Peach asked.

"Then our job will be easier," Tippi said. "I believe now it's time to move onto the next world."-


	11. Chapter 10: A Star Warrior

"New world!" Sora said.

"Land us down," Luigi said. Sora nodded and pressed down on the button to create a green portal to the outside of the world. They landed in a forest, filled with green trees with bright red apples hanging from the branches.

"I wonder what kind of world this is," Peach said. Before she could find out more, the four were surrounded by small mouse like creatures of varying colors. "Oh?"

One of the mice, a blue one, pulled out a large bomb and held it in its ears. "Give us your treasures and we won't use this." A much larger mouse emerged, this one dressed in red with dark blue skin.

"Treasure? We don't have any-"

"Ya sure, your princess's crown is pretty nice and would count as one." The larger mouse pointed at Peach. The smaller ones all started to squeak in agreement.

"I'm afraid I can't give you my crown. I'm sorry, but stealing from people is just…rude…" Peach said. Her hand opened up from a fist.

"I guess we'll have to steal it," the mouse said. The smaller mouse with the bomb threw its bomb at her as another stole her crown, but before it could hit a pink ball jumped in the way, sucking up the bomb in the process.

"Poyo poyo!" the pink ball, as it turned out, was a strange creature, perfectly round with arms, two red shoes, and a face. A light blue hat formed on its head as it threw the bomb at the mice.. "Poyo!"

The mice started backing away slightly before outright fleeing. Their boss glared at Kirby before teleporting away.

"Thank you," Sora said. "I'm Sora."

The pink puffball looked confused. "Oyo?"

"No, Sora," Sora said and pointed to himself. "Who are you?"

"Kirby! Kirby!" the puffball jumped around in excitement.

"Kirby?" Peach picked him up and smiled. "He's absolutely adorable."

"Not only that, he's a powerful Star Warrior," Tippi said.

"That thing's a warrior?" Bowser asked.

"Kirby!" Kirby cheered and nodded.

"Well, he's a baby warrior anyways," Tippi said, adding to her earlier statement. "He fights by sucking up the opponents weapon and absorbing their power to use."

"Really, so this little guy can do anything then?" Luigi asked.

"That is correct," a voice said. They turned around to see a dark blue version of what Kirby was with a silver mask on his face. A cape flowed out from behind him, but what worried them was the yellow glow of his eyes, a trait that they had begun associating with the Heartless. "It is this ability that makes him one of the strongest Star Warriors."

"Oyo!" Kirby looked excited at the knight's arrival.

"You know Kirby?" Peach asked him.

"I test him to see if he is ready. Nothing more." The knight walked up to Kirby and looked him over. "At the moment, he has become Bomb Kirby, however I would be interested to find out what would happen if he managed to get copy the powers of a Keyblade."

Sora summoned out his Keyblade and looked it over. "If Kirby managed to use this?"

"Yes."

"So wait, who are you? And who was the guy who attacked us?" Luigi asked.

"The person who attacked you was the leader of the Squeak Squad, Daroach. A treasure hunting group Kirby put a stop to when they stole the Dark Nebula. They still steal and hunt treasure although they haven't interfered with us in a while," the knight said, purposely avoiding the first question.

"What about you?" Bowser asked. "That doesn't tell us anything about you?" Before he could finish the question, the knight had vanished.

"Who was he?" Peach asked.

"Meta Knight, a powerful Star Warrior who protects the world of Dreamland, he probably even knew about the fact that we're dimensional travelers," Tippi said. "He probably wanted to see if we could be trusted and had no real intention of interfering…"

"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby pointed towards the direction Daroach ran off to; then to Peach's head.

"That's right, we have to get my crown back before we leave," Peach said with a nod.

"Then let's go get it!" Sora started running off deeper into the forest, shortly followed by the others. Not ten steps in were they surrounded by the Heartless. Some were the former varieties of Shadows, while others were similar to the mice from the Squeak Squad, except darker shades and with the thorny red heart on their backs. Another new Heartless amongst their ranks was a dark red Heartless with a single eye, inside the eye being the same heart on the other species.

"The mice are Squeaker Heartless. They simply jump to attack, unlike the Squeak Squad members we saw earlier," Tippi said. "The red Heartless are Waddle Doo Da Heartless, and fight much like creatures known as Waddle Doos. Their main attack is a laser that emerges from their eyes."

"Poyo!" Kirby lost the hat as quickly as it came before suctioning up one of the Waddle Doo Das. He gained a red and yellow jesters hat with white tips and a blue tip staff. Even his coloring changed as he went from pink to orange. He raised the staff and fired it off at one of the Heartless, destroying it in one orange blast. The others stared in shock for a moment.

"Stop staring and start fighting!" Bowser shouted and began slashing at the Heartless with his claws. Shadows fell to his claws in a puff of dark smoke before he turned to a Squeaker and clawed upwards and effectively destroyed it in midair. Peach and Sora joined in the assault, hitting and slashing at several of the Shadows and Squeakers with their respective weapons. Luigi began firing off green fireballs in rapid assault and hit several Waddle Doo Das, meanwhile standing at a far enough distance to avoid the orange beams they fired.

Sora wasn't so lucky. He turned around to face on and nearly met with a beam in the face. Peach lifted her parasol in time to protect them both from the majority of the damage from the beam.

"Hey, watch it!" Bowser released a large fireball at the Waddle Doo Da, effectively killing it in one hit and releasing a pink heart from the end of the fight.

"Oyo!" Kirby puffed up and began running off.

"Does he know where the Squeak Squad hides?" Sora asked.

"Who knows, but now we have to go after him," Bowser grumbled. They ran off slightly deeper into the forest where the Squeak Squad had set up camp, Kirby stood inside it.

"Long time no see Kirby," Daroach said. "I see you brought friends."

"Poyo! Poyo poyo!" Kirby pointed at the four heroes. "Kirby! Kirby!"

"Hm," Daroach looked at them. "You're friends of Kriby's I see."

"Huh, oh yeah," Sora said. Daroach threw the crown to Peach.

"Why did you return my crown?" Peach asked. Confusion laced her voice as she replaced the crown on her head.

"I've learned a long time ago not to steal from Kirby."

"What a pity, I was longing for a fight?" All of them looked around the area in confusion. "Ah well, can't say I am surprised."

"What?" Sora asked. "Show yourself!"

A jester clad in purple and yellow poncho appeared. Yellow bells dangled from the tips of his hat, the purple ends. He wore a mask, completely covering his face, however not hiding his eyes, one yellow and one black. The mask itself was black and white with a creepy smile lingering on his face. "If you insist."

"Hey, who are you?" Luigi shouted.

"Who am I? I am the master of dimensions, the pleaser of crowds. I am Dimentio, Count Bleck's jester" He took a bow. "And if I am correct, you are the heroes who pester the count like a rose thorn stuck in some poor idiots thumb."

"Yeah, that's us. Do you think you can take us?" Sora asked.

Dimentio laughed. "Who said anything about fighting you? I'll leave that to Daroach."

"Why would I fight them?" Daroach asked.

"Because of this." He smirked and teleported an ornate dark blue chest to his hand.

"That's…"

"Poyo! Poyo!" Kirby pointed to the chest in a panic.

"So you recognize what's in the box then?" Dimentio laughed. "Excellent, I'll leave you to it." He opened the treasure chest. "Ciao." Dimentio disappeared as a dark cloud emerged from the treasure chest and swarmed Daroach. The dark creature sent a pulse of dark aura at Peach before she had time to pull out her parasol, knocking her unconscious.

"Peach!" Sora reached his hand out for her before the possessed Daroach made an angry growl.

"Worry about her later, you have to take him out," Tippi said.

"Poyo!" Kirby lost his beam Kirby power-up and turned to Sora's Keyblade. He suctioned the magical weapon up in an instant. Of course, the sword would return to his hand in an instant, but the weapon did transform Kirby. Now the Star Warrior was still pink, but wore a silver crown on his head. A key-shaped necklace dangled around his neck and a miniature version of the Kingdom Key was in his hand.

"Woah!" Sora looked at Kirby in surprise.

"That's Dark Daroach, a version of Daroach possessed by the Dark Star. He teleports around mostly and uses dark aura attacks to attack, so be careful."

"Right." Sora nodded to Tippi and ran to attack Dark Daroach, his Keyblade slicing into the mouse just as he teleported away. He reappeared moments later to attack the whole group with a dark aura pulse. Bowser was able to duck inside his shell, but the others were unable to defend themselves from the attack and were knocked back several feet, Sora almost hitting a tree. Bowser attempted to claw at him, but the attack did very little in terms of damage and simply put Bowser in hitting range for another attack, blowing Bowser away immediately.

"It's up to you two!" Luigi shouted to Sora and Kirby after realizing normal attacks did no good. Sora looked at Kirby and nodded before charging at Daroach. The attack hit him and he lifted up his Keyblade just fast enough to protect himself from the dark aura attack. He threw his Keyblade at Daroach's head and the Keyblade returned to his head after missing, however distracting the mouse enough for Kirby to get a shot in at him. Kirby fired a Fire spell out of the tip of his tiny Keyblade which hit Daroach directly.

"Thunder!" Sora used his newly acquired magic to hit Daroach in the head with a multitude of tiny lightning bolts. Several of them hit while others missed as he teleported away right into a hit from Kirby's Keyblade. The hit knocked him back before Sora and Kirby locked eyes. Sora nodded slightly and the two charged at Daroach while he was town, Sora slashing from the front and Kirby slashing from the back. Daroach fell, the dark cloud leaving him immediately. The Squeak Squad leader rendered unconscious.

"Poyo!" At Kirby's command, Sora pointed his Keyblade at the dark cloud before it could possess another or form a true form. It dissolved as a beam of light shot out of his Keyblade and hit it directly.

"I commend you, Keybearer, for your impressive show." Meta Knight jumped off a cliff.

Sora raised his arms behind his head and smiled. "Thanks, but Kirby helped out a lot as well."

"I see," Meta Knight said.

Kirby started looking around for something. "Poyo?"

"What's wrong Kirby?" Sora asked. "Is something missing."

"Poyo! Poyo!" He jumped up and down and indicated Bowser, Luigi, and Tippi.

"Uhh, guys, where's Peach?" Sora asked.

"She should be right-what?" Where Luigi had pointed was nothing but pressed down grass and an empty space.

"Where did Peach go?" Bowser growled in anger. Nobody had an answer.

"I think I know…" Tippi said suddenly. "Remember what the green girl said…how they needed Peach too?"

"You don't think they got her too?" Sora asked.

"I…I do…"

"Well then, I guess I have to travel with you all." Bowser looked away. "After all, how am I supposed to save Peach from Count Bleck so I can kidnap her myself!"

"You have a one track mind…" Luigi shook his head. "But you're right. Now we gotta work twice as hard so we can save the princess and find Mario and Sora's friends."

"Then let's hurry!" Sora ran through the forest without a second glance. The others followed.

-x-

"Not such a successful plan Dimmy, the Keyblade Master and his friends beat that possessed mouse guy," Mimi said with a laugh.

"Actually, Mimi, it was quite a success as the goal was to distract them from the unconscious princess long enough for our new recruit to swoop in like an owl eagerly going after its prey," Dimentio said. Riku shivered slightly as Dimentio looked at him with interest, most of the minions went from okay to pretty cool, but there was something about Dimentio that creeped Riku out.

"Yes, thank you for that," Riku said. "And I did manage to get Peach."

"A very good job indeed Riku," Count Bleck said. "Nastasia, have you located the girl yet?"

"Yeah, she located onto Mobius, so we're gonna have to call in that favor from Eggman and have him pick her up, k?" Nastasia asked.

"Girl?" Riku didn't quite understand what they were going for.

"The one you were searching for, Kairi," Count Bleck said. "Count Bleck figured that while you helped him, he would help you."

Riku nodded. "We're going to save Kairi?"

"We shall depart immediately for Mobius," Count Bleck said. "Prepare yourself Riku." Count Bleck teleported out of the room, and Riku walked out shortly afterwards.


	12. Chapter 11: A Lost World

_Sora and Riku were walking along the beach on Destiny Islands. Sora was ahead of Riku, pointing to a small waterfall. The two couldn't have been much older than five. "It's true, I saw it with my own eyes!"_

"_You sure you didn't just here it this time?" Riku was doubtful of whatever it was Sora said he saw._

"_What difference does it make? There's a huge monster in there I tell you!" Sora shouted._

"_All right. Suppose there really is a real monster…think we can beat it by ourselves Sora?" Riku asked the question like it was a challenge._

"_No problem! Let's do it!" He stopped talking at a sound that sounded almost like a roar. "Listen! There! Can you hear it growling?"_

"_Shh, quiet. We've got to be careful." Riku lead the way into the cave, followed by Sora. Nothing was inside. "See that? It was just the wind making that noise."_

"_Aw man, I wish it was a monster." Sora sounded disappointed. He looked around the cave, his eyes locking on a small brown wooden door. "Hold on! What's that over there?"_

_Riku investigated it. "A window or a door?" He pulled on it to find out what was on the other side, but it didn't appear to move an inch. "It won't open."_

"_Geez, is that really all that's in here?" Sora asked._

"_What do you expect in a boring place like this?" Riku asked. He appeared lost in thought for a moment. "Hey, Sora."_

"_Hm?"_

"_When we grow up, let's get off this island." Riku was smiling. "We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!"_

"_Sure, but isn't there anything fun to do now?" Sora asked. He was kind of bored. "Hey, you know the new girl at the mayor's house?"_

-x-

"Right! Sora! Go right!" Luigi shouted at the Keyblade Master, snapping Sora out of his memory, and fired another beam at a rock as the Starshroom dodged another piece of space debris. The ship lunged right, narrowly avoiding a Heartless ship outside.

"What's with all of the space junk?" Bowser asked.

Luigi fired another beam at a piece heading right towards them. "Maybe with Count Bleck holding onto Rosalina, space hasn't been cleaned up well."

"I don't think that's-Look out!" Tippi pointed at the window as another asteroid, twice as large as the prior ones soared into their path.

"I don't think I can dodge it!" Sora pulled up on the controls in an effort to dodge the blow, but it did nothing as the ship took a direct hit. It began spiraling downward in the direction of a small portion of land below.

"Aim for that, we can worry about leaving later!" Luigi pointed at the land. Sora nodded and activated the landing controls as quickly as possible before touching down on the small island amongst space.

The world they landed on was dark to say the least. The whole area was covered in shadows with littered pieces of brick wall all around the area. It was depressing to say the least. "What…caused this place to be like this?" Tippi asked.

"It's depressing, isn't it?" A bitter laugh sounded behind them. The group turned around to see a young woman with black hair and dark blue skin. "A world eaten by the Heartless, but unable to die…that's the only fate of this place."

"How is that even possible? Don't the Heartless destroy the worlds they consume?" Sora asked.

"A protective spell summoned by the hand that destroyed it." The woman walked up to them. "The question is, what are four world travelers doing at a world so destroyed? All the safe happy worlds destroyed? Boring?"

"Anna, stop it!" A blue skinned boy ran up to the girl. His hair was a dark blue and caused Tippi a sad pang of familiarity. "Don't hurt them."

"Damien! Get back! I'll deal with these intruders. You stay in the shelter!" The woman, Anna, insisted.

"But-" Damien was shushed before he could get another say in. He looked at each of the newcomers with pleading eyes before settling them on Tippi. His eyes went wide. "Timpani! Help me out! Tell Anna I'm not ten anymore!"

"Timpani?" Sora asked. "Who's that?"

"Get your eyes checked Damien, that's not her and you know it." Anna frowned at him in disapproval. "Now let me take care of them."

"We don't mean any harm. We only need to hide out here until the debris disappears," Luigi said.

Anna looked each of them over before sighing. "Fine. Welcome to the Fragmented Kingdom, former homeworld to the Tribe of Darkness."

"You don't have to tell her that, it was her homeworld too you know?" Damien glared at Anna, who glared back.

"Ignore my little brother. He's a bit crazy, been that way since we lost his brother a few years back," she said.

"So wait, who's that Timpani girl he thinks Tippi is?" Bowser asked.

"My brother's dead girlfriend, not Damien's, the other brother's," Anna said.

"She really is!" Damien insisted. "I know you don't believe in my aura capabilities, but they're nearly identical to each other. Timpani's really there standing in front of you!"

"I'm afraid I'm not Timpani," Tippi said. She fluttered right in front of Damien's face. "My name's Tippi. I've been a Pixl for as long as I remember, and I'm afraid it's a bit odd for a Pixl to date a Tribe of Darkness, isn't it?"

"But…" Damien looked away. "You have to be her! Nobody else could have an aura like that! If Blumiere finds out he can come home!" He ran off in anger, causing Anna to sigh.

"I'm really sorry about him. He's always been a bit odd, but he and Blumiere were really close."

"Hey, how could he go tell this Blumiere if he's dead?" Sora asked in confusion.

"Blumiere…he's alive, but like an empty shell now…" Anna said. "If you don't mind, I don't really have the energy to go chasing after my little brother right now. Can you all go get him for me? There's not a lot left to the world, so you shouldn't need a guide to find him."

"Sure," Sora said. The others looked at him like he was nuts. "What? If she can't go find him, we have to."

"Fine!" Bowser growled and turned away. Tippi flew in front of the group as they started running along the dark wasteland of a world. Not even the Heartless appeared to fight them, nothing left of the world to destroy, or perhaps a result of the protection spell around the world was responsible for keeping them away.

"You should watch." Damien's voice drifted to their ears. "If you're not careful, you'll lose yourself to the darkness of your heart, your burden."

"My what?" Sora froze at the second voice. _Was that…Riku?_

"The burden of your heart, your darkness," Damien said. "It pollutes your aura even now, it's as heavy as the other boy's burden, but unlike his, yours doesn't just bring strain, it brings destruction."

"Who are you anyways?" Riku asked, his voice tense. "Why does it matter to you if I fall?"

"Because darkness took away my brother, and I don't believe another innocent soul should be corrupted like that," Damien said.

"Damien?" Tippi fluttered into the area, much against her better judgment. For whatever reason, she didn't want to hear any more about his lost brother.

"Timpani, you followed!" Damien seemed overjoyed by Tippi's appearance while Riku looked slightly angry at the sight of the rainbow Pixl. "You believe me!"

"Actually…Anna sent us…" Tippi said. Sora and the others stepped out moments later.

"Riku, what are you doing here?" Sora asked.

Riku shrugged in an attempt to feign indifference. "Just talking with Damien here."

"You know what I mean! What about Kairi? Did you find her?" Sora asked. His voice was filled with slight desperation in an attempt to learn any news about his missing friend.

"Maybe…" Riku smirked and grabbed Damien's arm.

"Hey!" Damien shouted and tried to swat at Riku, but Riku only grabbed on tighter. "Catch us and maybe I'll tell you what I know."

"Timpani! Help!" Damien shouted as he was carried away.

"Now you see why I didn't want him along. That brat just caused us a whole load of trouble," Bowser said.

Sora frowned. "He wasn't ever like this before…he's got to just be playing with us while he waits for the wreckage outside to become manageable to travel through." Even Sora knew the lie was false. But it didn't make sense that Riku would be acting like this at all. _Is it possible that what Damien said was true and there really is a lot of darkness in his heart?_

"Well, we have to go after him. Even if we hadn't promised Anna to get Damien, we need to find out what Riku learned about Kairi now," Tippi said, "and why he's taunting us."

"Somehow, I have a feeling it's partially a certain Koopa's fault," Luigi said and looked at Bowser briefly before turning back to the others. "He went that way, right?" Everyone nodded. "Then that's where we'll go."

-x-

"Count Bleck demands to know why you are so fascinated with the Keybearer and his friends," Count Bleck said. Riku held up the unconscious Damien, almost missing the soft suction of air from the count.

"It wasn't to completely mess with Sora. This boy has the ability to see auras. He could sense where Kairi's heart is," Riku said.

"But you are still taunting him nonetheless," the count said. "And because of this you endanger yourself to the darkness. If you wish to remain going out and doing missions, you will learn to let go. You may be able to justify it by taking him, but that is not the true reason you are here and all of us know it."

"Trust me, I'll be fine," Riku said.

"Very well…said Count Bleck. You will be wise to heed this warning." Count Bleck teleported out of the area, leaving Riku and Damien behind. The heroes arrived as he teleported away, leaving Tippi with an odd feeling as she saw him disappear.

"Riku! What's the matter with you?" Sora asked. "What are you thinking? Don't you realize what you're doing?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days," Riku said. "Do you even want to save Kairi?"

Sora clenched his fists. How could Riku even think that he didn't want to save Kairi? "I do."

A group of Heartless surrounded Riku and the unconscious Damien, surprising even Riku. He summoned his sword instantly against the mixed group of primarily Shadows and Neoshadows. He was quickly overwhelmed as they swarmed the young boy. Two Neoshadows held Damien up to carry him away while Riku was left.

"We have to help!" Sora leaped into action. Summoning his Keyblade, he attacked the two that surrounded Riku almost instantly.

Riku gave a smirk, possibly even a half smile of thanks before turning towards the Heartless. "You up for this?"

"No problem. Let's do it!" Sora instantly leapt upon the Neo Shadows and started bashing in the one on the right with his Keyblade. The Keyblade caused them both to shift attention from Damien to Sora and released the boy to duck into shadows in the ground. The two shadows emerged behind Sora, one finding itself prey to Bowser's claws and the other to Riku's sword. Sora turned around and cut through the two Neo Shadows, causing them both to disappear into clouds of darkness. Luigi started firing fireballs at the Shadows to keep them from taking Damien before Riku's sword sliced clear through them. The sword disappeared moments later.

"Not bad," Riku said, and for a moment, it was like they were back at the islands, competing just to best the other once more. He hoisted Damien over his shoulder.

"Riku, give Damien back! He needs to return to his sister!" Sora shouted.

"A powerful Aura Reader like him?" Riku asked. "I don't think I can do that. Damien here could tell us where Kairi's heart is, and we could save her. This boy could be the key."

"That doesn't make it okay for you to just take him!" Tippi said.

"I never said I wouldn't give him back if we saved Kairi," Riku said with a glare in Tippi's direction. "Not that it matters, this isn't your decision, it's Sora's. What do you say Sora? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it, together."

Sora summoned out his Keyblade in response. "You think I'd join you in hurting somebody else?"

"Wasn't he mad at me for not letting Riku join earlier?" Bowser asked. Luigi glared Bowser, causing the turtle to shut up.

"What, you'd rather fight me over a boy you barely know?" Riku asked with a hint of surprise invading his voice.

"Barely know him or not, I don't need to know him to know that you've chosen the wrong side," Sora said.

Riku shook his head in disappointment. "And here I thought you would actually join me. Guess the count was right, there's no point lingering on you." He stepped away from Damien's body before teleporting away.

"Damien, are you okay?" Tippi flew over to him. "Damien!"

"Tim…pani?" Damien looked up, his eyes fogged over from pain. "You just missed him…Blumiere…" he fell unconscious once more. Everyone sighed in relief.

"At least Riku didn't kill him," Luigi said and picked up Damien. "We should carry him back to his sister now."

"Riku…" Sora looked down.

"Don't worry about it Sora, he'll come back eventually." Even Tippi's half hearted reassurances couldn't remove the doubts Damien's words to Riku had placed in his mind. It was so hard to believe that Damien's reading of Riku's aura was wrong after what he'd seen. Riku might come back eventually, but the question wasn't of when, it was whether or not it would be too late.

-x-

"He's safe," Anna said in relief as Luigi put Damien down. "How did he get hurt?"

One silent look between the four of them was all it took to know not to mention Riku. "We ran into some Heartless that caused us a little bit of trouble."

"I didn't think the Heartless would get through the protective spell. The only way they'd get in is…if he sent them…" Anna's voice grew angry. "That little-"

"Anna?" Damien's voice rang out. The boy sat up. "I'm fine. Blumiere was here."

"Yeah and it's because of that idiot of a brother of yours that you're hurt. The only way Heartless can get in here is if he sent them," Anna said.

"Blumiere wouldn't…" Tippi mumbled before stopping herself from speaking out. She didn't know who Blumiere was as far as she could remember, and it was bugging her, this instinct to protect him from his sister's accusations. Perhaps there was some credence to Damien's theory of her being Timpani, or at least somehow connected to the girl, after all.

"I don't suppose there's a Keyhole here though?" Sora asked, interrupting the siblings before Damien could get yelled at.

Anna shook her head. "It was destroyed a long time ago with most of this world. If you're sealing them, you're about five years too late."

"Sorry I asked…" Sora said.

"Anyways, we should get going now that the way looks clearer," Luigi said. "Sora's journey is to seal the Keyholes, and find his missing friends."

"They're closer then you think," Damien said before smiling. "I hope we meet again soon. Make sure nothing bad happens to Timpani."

"Err…right…" Sora waved. "Hope we meet again soon!"

-x-

"So Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" Riku asked.

"It was unexpected, but what happened cannot be undone," Count Bleck said. He hid his face under the brim of his hat.

"And her heart was…"

"Taken by the Heartless when your homeworld was destroyed…said Count Bleck."

"Tell me! What can I do?" Riku asked. There had to be something he could do to bring Kairi back.

Count Bleck hesitated. "There…is something…the Dark Prognosticus tells of a land where all hearts reside after they are gone. This world, Kingdom Hearts, could hold her heart."

"Then let's get going towards it!" Riku said. "The sooner we get to this world, the faster I can save Kairi!"

Count Bleck shook his head. "It isn't that simple. Seven pure hearts from seven maidens of light are required to access it. We currently have five in our possession, but two are missing. If we can get inside, their hearts might be inside."

"Their?" Riku asked. He looked at the count with interest. Had the count lost somebody too? Was that why he was going on this quest, to get to Kingdom Hearts and bring back the person he lost?

"Nevermind," Count Bleck snapped. "The other princesses must still be found before this plan can progress." He left the room, forgetting about his ability to teleport in his desire to leave Riku.

"Quick to snap, it appears the count is losing hope in his plan fast," Dimentio said and teleported into the room.

Riku narrowed his eyes, he never did trust the creepy jester when it came to anything. "What do you want?"

"That is not the way to greet someone who wants to give you more power," Dimentio said.

"More power?" Riku asked.

Dimentio nodded. "The power to control the Heartless of course." He snapped his fingers and a dark aura surrounded Riku. "Now I must take my leave before the count returns, ciao."


End file.
